E-learning to Improve the Quality of Drug Prescribing in Hospitalized Elderly Patients

Effect of an Integrated E-learning Intervention, Focused on Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment to Improve the Quality of Drug Prescribing in Hospitalized Elderly Patients

Status

Completed

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT02339792

Enrollment

697

Registered

2015-01-15

Start date

2012-11-30

Completion date

2014-09-30

Last updated

2015-01-15

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Drug Use

Keywords

COMPREHENSIVE GERIATRIC ASSESSMENT (CGA), MEDICATION APPROPRIATENESS PRESCRIBING, DRUG INTERACTIONS, E-LEARNING

Brief summary

This randomized controlled pragmatic study is aimed to set-up, assess and implement an integrated e-learning program of medical education in an hospital setting, focused on teaching and implementing CGA added to geriatric pharmacological notions (GPNs) to improve the quality of drug prescribing in elderly patients

Detailed description

The integrated e-learning program (intervention group) is focused on teaching and implementing knowledge on CGA and GPNs to help clinicians to improve the quality of drug prescribing in the elderly.The GPNs is focused on pharmaco-epidemiological issues of drug prescribing, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic changes during aging, topics in evaluating and managing polypharmacy, criteria to review the appropriateness of drug therapies and the clinical relevance of PDDI in the elderly. The control group receives only GPNs.

Interventions

OTHERE-learning

e-learning program of medical education, focused on teaching and implementing Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) added to geriatric pharmacological notions (GPNs)

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE (Investigator)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

75 Years to No maximum

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

* people aged 75 years or older

Exclusion criteria

* people aged 75 years or older * refusal of consent to participate * a life expectancy of less than 6 months

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Improvement of drug prescribing	Participants will be followed for the duration of hospital stay, an expected average of 12 days	The primary study objective is to evaluate whether an integrated e-learning program of medical education, focused on teaching and implementing CGA added to GPNs (intervention) is superior to delivering GPNs only (control) in reducing the prescription of potentially inappropriate medications (PID) or of potential drug-drug interactions (PDDI) during hospitalization and at hospital discharge in hospitalized elderly. The primary outcome is the change in prescription of PID,as defined by Beers' criteria , or of PDDI related to the 20 drugs most frequently prescribed during hospital stay and at discharge.

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
clinical outcomes (lenght of hospitalization, mortality, rehospitalization)	12 months	Secondary objectives are the assessment of: \- the impact of the integrated e-learning intervention in terms of length of hospitalization, in-hospital and overall mortality, re-hospitalization and institutionalization during a follow-up of 12 months; - the persistence and the clinical impact on the enrolled patients of the effect of the integrated e-learning intervention on the improvement of quality of drug prescribing during a follow-up of 12 months. Secondary outcomes are the persistence and the clinical impact of the integrated e-learning intervention on duration of hospitalization, rate of in-hospital and overall mortality, re-hospitalization and institutionalization during 12 months of follow-up.

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026