TelePORT Pilot Study

The overall objectives in this application are to (a) examine the feasibility of providing telehealth ICU recovery care and (b) determine if ICU recovery care is effective. The central hypothesis is that ICU recovery care improves cognitive, mental health, and physical function of ICU survivors by application of a patient-centered survivorship care plan with targeted interventions to address patient-specific cognitive, mental health, and physical dysfunctions. The rationale for this project is that a determination of the feasibility of telehealth and effectiveness of ICU recovery care in general is likely to offer a strong scientific framework informing the development of new implementation strategies. We will test the central hypotheses by pursuing two specific aims: 1) Test that telehealth ICU recovery care is feasible, and 2) Test the hypothesis that telehealth ICU recovery care compared to standard of care conditions will be more effective for improvement in cognitive, mental health, physical, and global function at 6 months following hospital discharge. To address these aims, we will enroll patients treated for septic shock and acute respiratory distress syndrome in the medical and surgical ICUs at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Study patients will be randomized 1:1 to either the telehealth ICU recovery care or standard of care groups. We will conduct telehealth ICU recovery care from the Vanderbilt ICU Recovery Center. This ICU survivor clinic relies on the expertise of clinicians from critical care medicine, nursing, pharmacy, neuropsychology, rehabilitation, and case management to assess and manage PICS. Telehealth feasibility measures include appropriateness, acceptability, and implementability. Following telehealth clinic participation at 3 weeks and 3 months after hospital discharge, we will assess participants for cognitive, mental health, physical, and global quality of life outcomes using trained, blinded research personnel at 6 months following hospital discharge. We incorporated PROMIS patient-centered outcome measures into each patient outcome category. This research is significant because it is expected to provide scientific justification for the continued development and implementation of ICU recovery care programs. Ultimately, such knowledge has the potential to improve the quality of life for millions of ICU survivors and their family members.