The eGVHD App has the potential to improve the accuracy of graft-versus-host disease assessment: a multicenter randomized controlled trial
Helene M. Schoemans,
Kathy Goris,
Raf Van Durm,
Steffen Fieuws,
Sabina De Geest,
Steven Z. Pavletic,
Annie Im,
Daniel Wolff,
Stephanie J. Lee,
Hildegard Greinix,
Rafael F. Duarte,
Xavier Poiré,
Dominik Selleslag,
Philippe Lewalle,
Tessa Kerre,
Carlos Graux,
Frédéric Baron,
Johan A. Maertens,
Fabienne Dobbels
Affiliations
Helene M. Schoemans
Department of Hematology, University Hospitals Leuven and KU Leuven, Belgium;Academic Centre for Nursing and Midwifery, KU Leuven, Belgium
Kathy Goris
Department of Hematology, University Hospitals Leuven and KU Leuven, Belgium
Raf Van Durm
IT Department, University Hospitals Leuven, KU Leuven, Belgium
Steffen Fieuws
L-BioStat, KU Leuven – University of Leuven & Universiteit Hasselt, Leuven, Belgium
Sabina De Geest
Academic Centre for Nursing and Midwifery, KU Leuven, Belgium;Institute of Nursing Science, Department Public Health, University of Basel, Switzerland
Steven Z. Pavletic
Experimental Transplantation and Immunology Branch, Center for Cancer Research (CCR), National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, USA
Annie Im
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Daniel Wolff
Department of Hematology and Clinical Oncology, University of Regensburg, Germany
Stephanie J. Lee
Clinical Research Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA, USA
Hildegard Greinix
Division of Hematology, Medical University of Graz, Austria
Rafael F. Duarte
ICO/Hospital Duran I Reynals, Hospitalet De Llobregat, Spain
Graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) assessment has been shown to be a challenge for healthcare professionals, leading to the development of the eGVHD App (www.uzleuven.be/egvhd). In this study, we formally evaluated the accuracy of using the App compared to traditional assessment methods to assess GvHD. Our national multicenter randomized controlled trial involved seven Belgian transplantation centers and 78 healthcare professionals selected using a 2-stage convenience sampling approach between January and April 2017. Using a 1:1 randomization stratified by profession, healthcare professionals were assigned to use either the App (“APP”) or their usual GvHD assessment aids (“No APP”) to assess the diagnosis and severity score of 10 expert-validated clinical vignettes. Our main outcome measure was the difference in accuracy for GvHD severity scoring between both groups. The odds of being correct were 6.14 (95%CI: 2.83–13.34) and 6.29 (95%CI: 4.32–9.15) times higher in favor of the “APP” group for diagnosis and scoring, respectively (P
