SurgeryPhase 3TECTONICSNCT03923699
Telemedicine Control Tower for the Operating Room: Navigating Information, Care and Safety
A Phase 3 study of Surgery and Surgery--Complications, run by Washington University School of Medicine at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
Medical errors account for thousands of potentially preventable deaths each year. With the annual increase of surgical cases there is a need for research into the potential utility of a telemedicine-based control center for the operating room to assess risk, diagnose negative patient trajectories, implement… Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and older
- Conditions the study is for
- Surgery, Surgery--Complications, Perioperative/Postoperative Complications
- Type of treatment
- Medical device
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 79,560 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 1 Jul 2019to 31 Jan 2023
- Phase
- Phase 3
- Are there results?
- Yes, posted in the registrySummary in the doctors' view
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- No healthy volunteers
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- All patients 18 years or older undergoing surgery at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, MO
Who cannot join
- -
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
United States1 site
Washington University School of Medicine
St Louis, Missouri, 63110
About this study
Official title: Telemedicine Control Tower for the Operating Room: Navigating Information, Care and Safety - Randomized Pragmatic Trial
Medical errors account for thousands of potentially preventable deaths each year. With the annual increase of surgical cases there is a need for research into the potential utility of a telemedicine-based control center for the operating room to assess risk, diagnose negative patient trajectories, implement evidence-based practices, and improve outcomes.
Read the detailed description
This will be a single center, randomized, controlled, phase 3 pragmatic clinical trial. Forty-eight operating rooms will be randomized daily to receive support from the ACT or not. All adults (eighteen years and older) undergoing surgical procedures in these operating rooms will be included and followed until 30-days after their surgery. Clinicians in operating rooms randomized to 'intervention' will receive decision support from clinicians in the ACT. In operating rooms not randomized to receive decision support from the ACT, the current standard of anesthesia care will be delivered. The intention-to-treat principle will be followed for all analyses.
- Being tested
- Anesthesia Control Tower monitoring
- Keywords
- Telemedicine, Anesthesia Control Tower, Machine Learning, Forecasting Algorithms, Decision Support, Randomized Controlled Trial
- Medical subject headings
- Postoperative Complications
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Anesthesia Control Tower monitoringDevice
Real time data will be monitored through the AlertWatch® system as well as the patient's EHR.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Standard of care arm | No intervention | Operating rooms in the standard of care group will be monitored but, the ACT clinicians will not contact the operating room unless it is clinically necessary for patient safety purposes. |
| Anesthesia Control Tower monitoring | Experimental | Clinicians in the Anesthesiology Control Tower will provide extra support for the anesthesiology team in the operating room using AlertWatch and integrating machine-learning forecasting algorithms for adverse outcomes. Receives: Device: Anesthesia Control Tower monitoring |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Thirty-day Postoperative Mortality
This will include death of any cause occurring in or out of the hospital, within 30 days of the index surgery.
Measured: 30 days post-op
Number of Participants With Postoperative Delirium
Defined as an acute change in consciousness or cognition. It has a fluctuating course, and is characterized by inattention, disorganized thinking and altered level of consciousness. The institution has trained the nursing staff on our surgical intensive care units to assess all patients for postoperative delirium using the Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit (CAM-ICU) instrument.
Measured: 7 days post-op
Number of Participants With Postoperative Respiratory Failure
Defined as mechanical ventilation for greater than 24 hours after surgery, or unplanned postoperative re-intubation and mechanical ventilation within 30 days of surgery.
Measured: 30 days post-op
Number of Participants With Postoperative Acute Kidney Injury
Diagnosed when any of the following three criteria are met: (i) an increase in serum creatinine by 50% compared with preoperative within 7 days, (ii) any increase in serum creatinine > 0.3 mg/dL in 48 hours, or (iii) oliguria (urine output <0.5 mL/kg/hr for 6-12 hours).
Measured: 7 days post-op
Secondary outcomes (7)
Temperature Management
Percentage of patients with Temperature ≥ 36°C at end of surgery.
Measured: 1 day
Antibiotic Redosing
Percentage of patients with antibiotic redosing compliant with guidelines developed by the institutional pharmacy and therapeutics committee.
Measured: 1 day
Mean Arterial Pressure Management
Percentage time during surgery with mean arterial pressure ≥ 60 mmHg
Measured: 1 day
Mean Airway Pressure With Mechanical Ventilation
Percentage time during surgery with low PIP (peak inspiratory pressure)
Measured: 1 day
Blood Glucose Management
Percentage of patients with blood glucose ≥ 200 mg/dL at end of surgery.
Measured: 1 day
Measured Anesthetic Concentration
Percentage of patients without ≥ 15 consecutive min of anesthetic concentration ≤ 0.3 MAC during anesthetic maintenance period.
Measured: 1 day
Fresh Gas Flow Rates
Percentage of patients with efficient fresh gas flow for ≥90% of the anesthetic maintenance period.
Measured: 1 day
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted23 Apr 2019
- Study start1 Jul 2019
- Primary completion31 Jan 2023
- Study completion31 Jan 2023
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Posted resultsParticipant flow, outcome measures and adverse events reported by the sponsor.
- Publications (4)Papers the sponsor has linked to this study.
- Other trials for SurgeryStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by Washington University School of MedicineThe sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase 3
- Primary purpose
- Prevention
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Model description
- Randomized Parallel assignment
- Masking
- Single blind
- Who is masked
- Participant
- Enrolment
- 79,560 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Washington University School of Medicine
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)
- Responsible party
- Sponsor
- Investigators
- Michael S Avidan, MBBCh, Principal investigator, Washington University School of Medicine
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT03923699
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- 201903026
- Other IDs
- R01NR017916
- Acronym
- TECTONICS
- Status last verified
- Jun 2024
- First submitted
- 6 Mar 2019
- Last updated
- 17 Jul 2024
- Results posted
- Yes, on ClinicalTrials.gov
- Data monitoring committee
- Yes
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- Yes
- Individual data sharing
- No: There is no plan to make individual participant data available to other researchers as the data is collected under a waiver of informed consent and is also protected by a Certificate of Confidentiality from the NIH.
Publications
King CR, Fritz BA, Gregory SH, Budelier TP, Ben Abdallah A, Kronzer A, Helsten DL, Torres B, McKinnon SL, Tripathi S, Abdelhack M, Goswami S, Montes de Oca A, Mehta D, Valdez MA, Karanikolas E, Higo O, Kerby P, Henrichs B, Wildes TS, Politi MC, Abraham J, Avidan MS, Kannampallil T; ACTFAST collaborator group. Effect of telemedicine support for intraoperative anaesthesia care on postoperative outcomes: the TECTONICS randomised clinical trial. Br J Anaesth. 2025 Mar;134(3):671-680. doi: 10.1016/j.bja.2024.11.017. Epub 2025 Jan 3.
PubMed 39753404King CR, Fritz BA, Gregory SH, Budelier TP, Ben Abdallah A, Kronzer A, Helsten DL, Torres B, McKinnon SL, Tripathi S, Abdelhack M, Goswami S, de Oca AM, Mehta D, Valdez MA, Karanikolas E, Higo O, Kerby P, Henrichs B, Wildes TS, Politi MC, Abraham J, Avidan MS, Kannampallil T; ACTFAST collaborator group. Effect of Telemedicine Support for Intraoperative Anaesthesia Care on Postoperative Outcomes: The TECTONICS Randomised Clinical Trial. medRxiv [Preprint]. 2024 Nov 26:2024.05.21.24307593. doi: 10.1101/2024.05.21.24307593.
PubMed 38826207Fritz B, King C, Chen Y, Kronzer A, Abraham J, Ben Abdallah A, Kannampallil T, Budelier T, Montes de Oca A, McKinnon S, Tellor Pennington B, Wildes T, Avidan M. Protocol for the perioperative outcome risk assessment with computer learning enhancement (Periop ORACLE) randomized study. F1000Res. 2022 Sep 29;11:653. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.122286.2. eCollection 2022.
PubMed 37547785King CR, Abraham J, Kannampallil TG, Fritz BA, Ben Abdallah A, Chen Y, Henrichs B, Politi M, Torres BA, Mickle A, Budelier TP, McKinnon S, Gregory S, Kheterpal S, Wildes T, Avidan MS; TECTONICS Research Group. Protocol for the Effectiveness of an Anesthesiology Control Tower System in Improving Perioperative Quality Metrics and Clinical Outcomes: the TECTONICS randomized, pragmatic trial. F1000Res. 2019 Nov 29;8:2032. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.21016.1. eCollection 2019.
PubMed 32201572
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 17 Jul 2024. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Telemedicine Control Tower for the Operating Room: Navigating Information, Care and Safety - Randomized Pragmatic Trial
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT03923699
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- TECTONICS / 201903026
- Keywords
- Telemedicine, Anesthesia Control Tower, Machine Learning, Forecasting Algorithms, Decision Support, Randomized Controlled Trial
- Phase
- Phase 3
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 79,560 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- Washington University School of MedicineUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)
- Study start
- 1 Jul 2019 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 31 Jan 2023 (actual)
- Study completion
- 31 Jan 2023 (actual)
- First posted
- 23 Apr 2019 (actual)
- Results
- Posted 17 Jul 2024
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
Medical errors account for thousands of potentially preventable deaths each year. With the annual increase of surgical cases there is a need for research into the potential utility of a telemedicine-based control center for the operating room to assess risk, diagnose negative patient trajectories, implement evidence-based practices, and improve outcomes.
Detailed description
This will be a single center, randomized, controlled, phase 3 pragmatic clinical trial. Forty-eight operating rooms will be randomized daily to receive support from the ACT or not. All adults (eighteen years and older) undergoing surgical procedures in these operating rooms will be included and followed until 30-days after their surgery. Clinicians in operating rooms randomized to 'intervention' will receive decision support from clinicians in the ACT. In operating rooms not randomized to receive decision support from the ACT, the current standard of anesthesia care will be delivered. The intention-to-treat principle will be followed for all analyses.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Prevention
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- Single blind (participant)
- Number of arms
- 2
- Model description
- Randomized Parallel assignment
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Standard of care arm | No intervention | –Operating rooms in the standard of care group will be monitored but, the ACT clinicians will not contact the operating room unless it is clinically necessary for patient safety purposes. |
| Anesthesia Control Tower monitoring | Experimental | Device: Anesthesia Control Tower monitoringClinicians in the Anesthesiology Control Tower will provide extra support for the anesthesiology team in the operating room using AlertWatch and integrating machine-learning forecasting algorithms for adverse outcomes. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Not accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (1 listed)
- All patients 18 years or older undergoing surgery at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, MO
Key exclusion criteria (1 listed)
- -
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Anesthesia Control Tower monitoringReal time data will be monitored through the AlertWatch® system as well as the patient's EHR. | Device | Anesthesia Control Tower monitoring |
Primary outcome
Thirty-day Postoperative Mortality
Time frame: 30 days post-op
This will include death of any cause occurring in or out of the hospital, within 30 days of the index surgery.
Number of Participants With Postoperative Delirium
Time frame: 7 days post-op
Defined as an acute change in consciousness or cognition. It has a fluctuating course, and is characterized by inattention, disorganized thinking and altered level of consciousness. The institution has trained the nursing staff on our surgical intensive care units to assess all patients for postoperative delirium using the Confusion Assessment Method for the Intensive Care Unit (CAM-ICU) instrument.
Number of Participants With Postoperative Respiratory Failure
Time frame: 30 days post-op
Defined as mechanical ventilation for greater than 24 hours after surgery, or unplanned postoperative re-intubation and mechanical ventilation within 30 days of surgery.
Number of Participants With Postoperative Acute Kidney Injury
Time frame: 7 days post-op
Diagnosed when any of the following three criteria are met: (i) an increase in serum creatinine by 50% compared with preoperative within 7 days, (ii) any increase in serum creatinine > 0.3 mg/dL in 48 hours, or (iii) oliguria (urine output <0.5 mL/kg/hr for 6-12 hours).
7 secondary outcomes
Temperature Management
Time frame: 1 day
Antibiotic Redosing
Time frame: 1 day
Mean Arterial Pressure Management
Time frame: 1 day
Mean Airway Pressure With Mechanical Ventilation
Time frame: 1 day
Blood Glucose Management
Time frame: 1 day
Measured Anesthetic Concentration
Time frame: 1 day
Fresh Gas Flow Rates
Time frame: 1 day
Results and safety
Loading the posted results from ClinicalTrials.gov…
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 17 Jul 2024.
- Posted resultsParticipant flow, baseline, all outcome measures and adverse events.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 39753404King CR, Fritz BA, Gregory SH, Budelier TP, Ben Abdallah A, Kronzer A, Helsten DL, Torres B, McKinnon SL, Tripathi S, Abdelhack M, Goswami S, Montes de Oca A, Mehta D, Valdez MA, Karanikolas E, Higo O, Kerby P, Henrichs B, Wildes TS, Politi MC, Abraham J, Avidan MS, Kannampallil T; ACTFAST collaborator group. Effect of telemedicine support for intraoperative anaesthesia care on postoperative outcomes: the TECTONICS randomised clinical trial. Br J Anaesth. 2025 Mar;134(3):671-680. doi: 10.1016/j.bja.2024.11.017. Epub 2025 Jan 3.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 38826207King CR, Fritz BA, Gregory SH, Budelier TP, Ben Abdallah A, Kronzer A, Helsten DL, Torres B, McKinnon SL, Tripathi S, Abdelhack M, Goswami S, de Oca AM, Mehta D, Valdez MA, Karanikolas E, Higo O, Kerby P, Henrichs B, Wildes TS, Politi MC, Abraham J, Avidan MS, Kannampallil T; ACTFAST collaborator group. Effect of Telemedicine Support for Intraoperative Anaesthesia Care on Postoperative Outcomes: The TECTONICS Randomised Clinical Trial. medRxiv [Preprint]. 2024 Nov 26:2024.05.21.24307593. doi: 10.1101/2024.05.21.24307593.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 37547785Fritz B, King C, Chen Y, Kronzer A, Abraham J, Ben Abdallah A, Kannampallil T, Budelier T, Montes de Oca A, McKinnon S, Tellor Pennington B, Wildes T, Avidan M. Protocol for the perioperative outcome risk assessment with computer learning enhancement (Periop ORACLE) randomized study. F1000Res. 2022 Sep 29;11:653. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.122286.2. eCollection 2022.
- Derived from this study: PubMed 32201572King CR, Abraham J, Kannampallil TG, Fritz BA, Ben Abdallah A, Chen Y, Henrichs B, Politi M, Torres BA, Mickle A, Budelier TP, McKinnon S, Gregory S, Kheterpal S, Wildes T, Avidan MS; TECTONICS Research Group. Protocol for the Effectiveness of an Anesthesiology Control Tower System in Improving Perioperative Quality Metrics and Clinical Outcomes: the TECTONICS randomized, pragmatic trial. F1000Res. 2019 Nov 29;8:2032. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.21016.1. eCollection 2019.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No. There is no plan to make individual participant data available to other researchers as the data is collected under a waiver of informed consent and is also protected by a Certificate of Confidentiality from the NIH.
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
Michael S Avidan, MBBCh principal investigator
Washington University School of Medicine
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A Phase 3 study of Surgery and Surgery--Complications, run by Washington University School of Medicine at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 1 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 17 Jul 2024. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
What does this phase mean?
Phase 3 studies compare the treatment with the current standard treatment or a placebo in a large group, to confirm how well it works and watch for side effects.
Not every study follows the same path, and some studies (observational studies, device studies) have no phase.
Are results available for this study?
Yes. Results are posted in the registry (first posted 17 Jul 2024). A summary is in the For doctors view, and the full results are on ClinicalTrials.gov.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Thirty-day Postoperative Mortality (time frame: 30 days post-op). The study lists 4 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT03923699, which also lists 4 linked publications.
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 17 Jul 2024.