Abstract
Telephone and televideo have yielded equivalent patient satisfaction and psychosocial outcomes when compared to in-person genetic counseling, yet little is known about how they compare to one another. In this randomized controlled trial, veterans received genetic counseling via telephone or traveled to a clinic to participate via encrypted televideo. Knowledge and visit satisfaction were assessed 2 weeks later. Travel time, mileage, and out-of-pocket costs were calculated for videoconferencing. Qualitative interviews were conducted with patients and counselors to assess acceptability. Of the 20 male patients randomized to telephone, 90% received counseling and provided outcomes; of the 18 randomized to televideo, 67% received counseling and 50% provided outcomes. Telephone patients answered a mean of 4.4 of eight questions correctly at baseline and 4.7 at follow-up; televideo means were 5.6 and 6.5, respectively. Satisfaction was 25.2 out of 30 for telephone and 26.9 for televideo. Televideo patients incurred a median of 2.8 h of travel time, 40 roundtrip miles, and $67.29 in costs. Patients and counselors found both modes acceptable for providing education and answering questions. Although patients liked the flexibility of telephone, counselors felt patients missed more appointments and were distracted when using telephone. A noted advantage of videoconferencing was reading body language. Further evaluation of alternative delivery modes is needed.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank Jennifer Lindquist for assistance with programming the survey and randomization scheme. We also acknowledge Michelle Interdonato, the Research Associate in Salt Lake City, and Katherine Dunn, MS, genetic counselor who triaged the referrals and conducted many of the counseling sessions.
Funding
This study was funded by a grant awarded to Dr. Datta by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Health Services Research & Development Service (PPO 13-364). Effort on this manuscript was made possible by a VA Research Career Scientist award to Dr. Voils (RCS 14-443) and VA funding to the Durham Center of Innovation. The views contained in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not represent the VA or the US government.
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Corrine I. Voils, Vickie L. Venne, Hollis Weidenbacher, Nina Sperber, and Santanu Datta declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Human Studies and Informed Consent
All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.
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No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.
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Voils, C.I., Venne, V.L., Weidenbacher, H. et al. Comparison of Telephone and Televideo Modes for Delivery of Genetic Counseling: a Randomized Trial. J Genet Counsel 27, 339–348 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10897-017-0189-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10897-017-0189-1