SPROUT-CTSA Collaborative Telehealth Research Network

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PROJECT SUMMARY & ABSTRACT Telehealth is a rapidly growing and evolving field, encompassing healthcare delivery for a wide variety of patients through audio-video connections and other forms of electronic communication. Because of this rapid evolution and the resulting variety and complexity of different telehealth practices across the country, conducting quality research into the impact of telehealth services on healthcare costs, quality, and access has historically been a challenge. The SPROUT (Supporting Pediatric Research on Outcomes and Utilization of Telehealth) Collaborative was established in 2016, in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics, to rigorously evaluate pediatric telehealth services through the development of multicenter research on telehealth implementation and practice, and has grown rapidly to include 104 healthcare institutions across the country. The SPROUT-CTSA Collaborative Telehealth Research Network will enhance the existing infrastructure and expertise of SPROUT with the established research resources of the national CTSA Consortium to develop, iteratively test and enhance, and disseminate an innovative model for clinical and translational telehealth research. By creating and disseminating the tools for multicenter telehealth research, we will bridge the gap between telehealth development and integration of telehealth into the healthcare system. Our Specific Aims are to: 1) Establish a robust platform for multisite telehealth research, and enhance and expand existing tools, registries, and best practices for efficient telehealth study conduct, including tools to target research efforts towards identified gaps in the existing telehealth evidence base; 2) Develop and integrate training and education modules and workshops across the SPROUT-CTSA Network related to multisite telehealth research study design, study conduct, recruitment, and data management; and 3) Develop an effective infrastructure to disseminate telehealth research findings, emerging best practices, and new research tools. The network will serve to integrate a research focus into the culture and consciousness of telehealth nationwide. We have assembled a multidisciplinary team of investigators with collective mastery of telehealth development and implementation, multicenter research methodology, economic evaluation, and guideline and policy development. The SPROUT-CTSA Network will be led by investigators from the Medical University of South Carolina, University of Colorado – Denver, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Mercy Virtual, with national coordinating support from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Together, we will overcome many of the barriers to multisite telehealth research and create the tools necessary to bridge the gap between telehealth development and integration of telehealth into healthcare systems.