The purpose of this ongoing study is to test the outcomes of adherence to home CPAP ventilation prescribed by a medical doctor when nurses use in-home audio/video telehealth equipment for administering nursing interventions to families and for collecting research data. The study design is a clinical trial with observation data collection and comparison. The subjects are adult patients (n = 197) using nighttime mechanical ventilation and their caregivers (n = 78) who provide home care. Results to date indicate that observations of caregiver and patient equipment are reliable. Nursing interventions, equipment demonstrations, visual illustrations, educational videotapes, and audiotaped directions from the nurse have been transmitted clearly across telehealth, technology, with the exception of materials that have low contrast in color or small font size. Costs of telehealth home monitoring for data collection will be compared to costs of traditional home visits for data collection. In-home Internet inventventions being tested use decision making algorithms to guide home care and problem solving with technical problems. This web site was given the STT International award for Excellence in Public Health Education by Computer in 2002. The telehealth transmission via residence telephone lines has been reliable to date for delivering educational nursing interventions and for collecting physiological as well as observational data. Analysis of long term outcomes is pending completion of data collection.
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