Trial reportJournal of general internal medicine2024
Informational Postcards Increase Engagement with Remote Monitoring Among Veterans with Pacemakers and Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators: a Stepped-Wedge Randomized Controlled Trial.
Trial report in Journal of general internal medicine, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Informational letters or postcards to initiate remote monitoring among veterans with pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators: A randomized, controlled trial.Pacing and clinical electrophysiology : PACE · 2024Trial
- Recommendations for sharing cardiovascular implantable electronic device data with patients based on clinician interviews.Heart rhythm O2 · 2026Article
- Outcomes associated with remote monitoring without in-person evaluations for patients with cardiovascular implantable electronic devices.Heart rhythm O2 · 2025Article
- Veterans health administration national cardiac device surveillance program: Structured, centralized remote monitoring for cardiovascular implantable electronic devices to improve quality of care.Heart rhythm O2 · 2025Review
- Article
- Realizing Virtual Care in VA: Supporting the Healthcare System's Journey Towards Enhanced Access, Engagement, and Outcomes.Journal of general internal medicine · 2024Article
- Strategies to enhance remote monitoring adherence among patients with cardiovascular implantable electronic devices.Heart rhythm O2 · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundRemote monitoring (RM) of pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) reduces morbidity and mortality. However, many patients are not adherent to RM.
objectiveTo test the effect of informational postcards on RM adherence. DESIGN/PATIENTS: Stepped-wedge randomized controlled trial among Veterans with pacemakers and ICDs.
interventionIn wave 1, Veterans who had sent at least 1 transmission within the past 2 years but had become non-adherent were randomly assigned to receive a postcard or no postcard. Those receiving postcards were randomized to 1 of 2 messages: (1) a"warning" postcard describing risks of non-adherence or (2) an "encouraging" postcard describing benefits of adherence. In wave 2, Veterans who had either not received a postcard in wave 1 or had since become non-adherent were mailed a postcard (again, randomized to 1 of 2 messages). Patients who did not send an RM transmission within 1 month were mailed a second, identical postcard. MAIN MEASURES: Transmission within 70 days. KEY
resultsOverall, 6351 Veterans were included. In waves 1 and 2, postcards were mailed to 5657 Veterans (2821 "warning" messages and 2836 "encouraging" messages). Wave 1 included 2178 Veterans as controls (i.e., not mailed a postcard), some of whom received a postcard in wave 2 if they remained non-adherent. In wave 2, 3473 postcards were sent. Of the 5657 patients mailed a postcard, 2756 (48.7%) sent an RM transmission within 70 days, compared to 530 (24.3%) of 2178 controls (absolute difference 24.4%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 22.2%, 26.6%). Of those who sent a transmission, 71.8% did so after the first postcard. Transmission rates at 70 days did not significantly differ between "warning" and "encouraging" messages (odds ratio 1.04, 95% CI 0.92, 1.18).
conclusionsInformational postcards led to a 24.4% absolute increase in adherence at 70 days among Veterans with pacemakers and ICDs who were non-adherent to RM.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.