Background

1. EVALUATING INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY TOOLS FOR MANAGING A CLINICAL TRIAL IN A PUBLIC HEALTH SETTING TO REDUCE THE RISK FOR ANTEPARTUM DEPRESSION D. Elizabeth Jesse, PhD, CNM1; Elizabeth Feldhousen,MS, LMFT1; Zachary Love, MA2 East Carolina University College of Nursing1; East Carolina University Center for Survey Research2 Contact email: jessed@ecu.edu Website: http://insightplus/.org/ Background Results Despite the advantages of using technology, few if any, have described a research team's evaluation of electronic processes for managing a clinical trial. 91% (10/11) of the current or former research assistants and study staff responded to the confidential online survey Objectives The aim of this study is to describe the use of technology tools from the perspective of the staff and research assistants who used the tools during a 3-year randomized clinical trial (RCT) funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.* Research Questions What is the frequency of use, user friendliness, and impact of using technology tools for managing a randomized clinical trial from the perspective of study team? 1. On a scale of 0-4 (almost never to almost always), on the average, how frequently do you use these tools per working day? 2. On a scale of 1-6 (very unfriendly to very friendly) how do you judge the user friendliness of the technology tools? 3. On a scale of 1-6 (very little impact to great impact) do you judge the impact of the technology tools on the ease of this research project? A dedicated shared drive and a secure drive on file servers at ECU College of Nursing (CON) offered optimal availability of files to track research progress. Netbooks with cellular network cards programmed with Qualtrics survey for interviewers to enter interview data at sites Skype Calls to PI, team, and Co-investigators Methods Design: Descriptive quantitative survey design Sample: Convenience sampling (N=11) of research team members managing and collecting data for a randomized clinical trial. Statistics: Descriptive frequencies and means Technology Tool Set & Secure Shared Drives Research team members interviewed women at risk for antepartum depression using measurement tools programmed on web-based netbooks Qualtrics survey using the cellular network on Netbooks the study instruments to collect participant data. *Jesse, D. E., Gaynes, B., Newton, E.R., Bunch, S., Swanson, M.S., Hollon, S., A Public Health Program to Reduce Risk of Antepartum Depression, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), 12/1/10-11/30/2013. “Smart” phone to enhance team communication from clinical sites Data exported from Qualtrics to SPSS Conclusions The Qualtrics survey programmed on netbooks was used most frequently and rated as the technology tool with the greatest impact on ease of collecting data. The dedicated shared drive for storing files, organizing, and tracking research progress was rated as the friendliest technology tool. The secure drive for storing identified information was used infrequently because few research assistants were assigned to enter data on the secure drive. The study team gave a low rating to the user friendliness of the netbook computers. Netbookswere chosen because they were inexpensive, lightweight, and unobtrusive at the clinical sites and hand held devices, such as iPad tablets, could not support Qualtrics and SPSS software. For future studies, tablets could be piloted to determine if they are a more user friendly option for interviews. Based on these findings, development and consistent use of reliable technology tools may increase the ease and friendliness of future randomized clinical trials. A technology tool set such as this could also reduce the start-up time of conducting a clinical trial, improve accuracy of data collection, and reduce error in data entry.