NCT04074239

Using Video for Triage of Children With Fever at the Medical Helpline 1813 in Copenhagen, Denmark

Completed NA Last updated 12 August 2020

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Video triage in Fever in 801 participants. Completed in 20 February 2020.

Timeline

5 August 2019

Primary endpoint
2 February 2020

20 February 2020

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Emergency Medical Services, Capital Region, Denmark
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	non randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	none
Primary purpose	other
Enrollment	801
Start date	5 August 2019
Primary completion	2 February 2020
Estimated completion	20 February 2020
Sites	1 location across Denmark

Drugs / interventions tested

• Video triage

Conditions studied

• Fever — all drugs for Fever →
• Telemedicine — all drugs for Telemedicine →
• Pediatrics — all drugs for Pediatrics →
• Triage — all drugs for Triage →

Sponsor

Emergency Medical Services, Capital Region, Denmark

Who can join

Adults 3 Months to 5, any sex, with Fever or Telemedicine. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Background:

The Medical Helpline 1813 in Copenhagen, Denmark handles acute, non-life threatening medical emergencies. Approx. 200,000 calls/year concern children, and about 30% are referred to a pediatric urgent care center. However, most of these children have very mild symptoms, which require neither treatment nor tests, merely parental guidance.

Initial assessment; triage, of children on the phone is difficult, especially when the operator does not know the child or family, and when it is difficult to describe the symptoms in medical terms. This may result in too many not-so-sick children and too few more severely sick children getting sent to hospital.

Many parents are very worried about their sick child, but it is not known if this worry can be integrated in the triage process.

Purpose:

It will be studied if triage by video calls; video triage; provide greater security for parents and call operators so that more children can stay at home after medical guidance, causing at least 10% fewer visits to pediatric urgent care centers. The degree of worry of the parents will also be registered.

Method:

Children aged 3 months to 5 years with fever will be triaged by either video or telephone every other day, to compare the results between these to otherwise similar groups. Operators and parents answer surveys about their experiences.

Yield:

Video triage can "give eyes to the operators" and revolutionize telephone triage. The study may result in fewer children referred to hospitals, more appropriate use of resources and better experiences for the families.

Publications & conference data

2 peer-reviewed publications reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):

1. "We can't do without it": Parent and call-handler experiences of video triage of children at a medical helpline.
   Gren C, Egerod I, Linderoth G, Hasselager AB, et al · · 2022 · cited 15× · PMID 35421109 · DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0266007
2. Video triage in calls concerning children with fever at an out-of-hours medical helpline: a prospective quality improvement study.
   Gren C, Hasselager AB, Linderoth G, Frederiksen MS, et al · · 2023 · cited 4× · PMID 37644510 · DOI 10.1186/s13049-023-01106-9