Automated telecommunication to obtain longitudinal follow-up in a multicenter cross-sectional COPD study.
BACKGROUND
It can be challenging to maintain longitudinal follow-up of subjects in clinical studies. COPDGene is a multicenter, observational study designed to identify genetic factors associated with COPD and to characterize COPD-related phenotypes. To obtain follow-up data on patient's vital status and outcomes, the COPDGene Longitudinal Follow-up (LFU) Program was developed to supplement its parent study.


RESULTS
We used a telecommunication system that employed automated telephone contact or web-based questions to obtain longitudinal follow-up data in our subjects. A branching questionnaire asked about exacerbations, new therapies, smoking status, development of co-morbid conditions, and general health status. Study coordinators contacted subjects who did not respond to one of the automated methods. We enrolled 10,383 subjects in the COPDGene study. As of August 29, 2011, 7,959 subjects completed 19,955 surveys. On the first survey, 68.8% of subjects who completed their survey did so by electronic means, while 31.3% required coordinator phone follow-up. On each subsequent survey the number of subjects who completed their survey by electronic means increased, while the number of subjects who required coordinator follow-up decreased. Despite many of the patients in the cohort being chronically ill and elderly, there was broad acceptance of the system with over half the cohort using electronic response methods.


CONCLUSIONS
The COPDGene LFU Study demonstrated that telecommunications was an effective way to obtain longitudinal follow-up of subjects in a large multicenter study. Web-based and automated phone contacts are accepted by research subjects and could serve as a model for LFU in future studies.
Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19140, USA. stewart@tuhs.temple.edu
Jeffrey I
JI
Stewart
Sarah
S
Moyle
Gerard J
GJ
Criner
Carla
C
Wilson
Ron
R
Tanner
Russell P
RP
Bowler
James D
JD
Crapo
Robert K
RK
Zeldin
Barry J
BJ
Make
Elizabeth A
EA
Regan
For The Copdgene Investigators
D000368:Aged; D001331:Automation; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008137:Longitudinal Studies / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000235:genetics; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013685:Telecommunications; D013689:Telephone