OA-AID
Digital coping tools and digital follow-up to support shared decisionmaking in the treatment of patients with knee osteoarthritis
Project managers
ABOUT THE PROJECT
There is no treatment that can cure osteoarthritis, and the latest treatment recommendations give strong advice to initiate self-management programmes, information, exercise and weight control as basic treatment for all osteoarthritis patients. The treatment recommendations highlight the importance of the patient being well informed about surgical and non-surgical treatment options, and the advantages and disadvantages of these, so that the patient and specialist can make a shared decisionmaking (shared decision-making) about the further course of treatment. There is therefore a need to develop a tool that can provide patients with individually tailored information about all current treatment options.
In this project, we will develop an 8-week digital information and training intervention that patients who are referred for assessment in the specialist health service will have access to in the period from when they are referred until consultation. Our hypothesis is that such an intervention will ensure that the patients have knowledge and experience of the various treatment recommendations before they come for a consultation in the specialist health service, as well as that there will be better communication and shared decisionmaking about the further course of treatment during the consultation. The intervention will be tested in a randomized controlled trial.
Furthermore, we will investigate whether we can use the patients' self-reporting to triage patients for job slippage, where patients with the highest probability of being eligible for surgery are referred for consultation with an orthopedist, while patients with the highest probability of being eligible for exercise instead of surgery are referred for consultation with a physiotherapist.
WHO CAN JOIN?
Patients with knee osteoarthritis who are referred for assessment in the specialist health service (Diakonhjemmet Hospital) are relevant for the study.
Recruitment of participants for the study has not started yet.
WHAT DOES THE STUDY INCLUDE?
This project consists of two sub-studies:
SUB-STUDY A
The patients will fill in patient-reported data before being randomly allocated to one of two groups: One group (the intervention group) will get access to an 8-week digital information and training intervention through the Youwell app in the time between referral and consultation in the specialist healthcare service. They will also self-report their state of health every two weeks so that the therapist can see how the condition develops over time instead of only getting a snapshot in connection with the consultation. The other group (the control group) will follow current practice, that is, they will not receives an offer from the specialist health service in the period between referral and consultation. The main outcome measure will be the patients' knowledge of treatment recommendations for knee osteoarthritis. We will also investigate the degree of shared decisionmaking and satisfaction with the treatment.
SUB-STUDY B
Information from sub-study A will be used to develop an algorithm for job slippage based on the patients' self-report. Patients with the highest probability of undergoing surgery will be triaged for consultation with an orthopedist, while patients with the highest probability of being recommended exercise will be triaged for consultation with a physiotherapist. This algorithm will be tested in a feasibility study. The main outcome measure will be the proportion who are triaged to the correct treatment, as well as the patients' satisfaction with the treatment.