Quality Indicators for hand osteoarthritis (QI-HOA)
Quality indicators for hand osteoarthritis
Project managers
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The aim of this project is to adapt an existing quality indicator set (the OA-QI v.2 questionnaire) to become suitable and relevant for assessing patient-reported quality of care for patients with hand osteoarthritis and use of eHealth strategies.
Hand osteoarthritis is one of the most common rheumatic joint diseases. There is no cure, but international guidelines state that patient education, hand exercises, assistive devices and orthoses are the core interventional treatments.
Still, recent research shows that the quality of care services in general is sub-optimal for this patient group. One method to improve quality of care is to make information about recommended treatment available via digital solutions, such as applications for smartphones and via websites, also called eHealth. This technology can be used to support patients in developing and following useful self-management strategies, and to collect data for use in research.
Quality indicators are a useful tool for monitoring the quality of treatment and investigating whether it improves when new treatment strategies are introduced. Quality indicators have been developed for the treatment of osteoarthritis, but these are not adapted to the group with hand osteoarthritis, or the use of eHealth strategies.
WHAT DOES THE STUDY INCLUDE?
To adapt the OA-QI v.2 questionnaire for measuring quality of care for people with hand OA, we have followed the Rand/UCLA Appropriateness Method, which integrates evidence review, multidisciplinary expert panel meetings and repeated anonymous ratings for consensus building. The expert panel includes patient research partners, clinicians and researchers.
As the OA-QI v.2 questionnaire is available both in English and Norwegian, we will develop the new hand OA-QI questionnaire in parallel in these two languages. The consensus process is finished, and the results have been analysed and summarised in an article that was submitted to a relevant scientific journal in December 2024.