Abstract
Introduction: In an era of personalised health care, it has become increasingly important to elicit individual-level preferences. Whilst discrete choice experiments (DCEs) are widely used to measure patient preferences in the delivery of health care, the focus has been sample-level analysis. Using the
DCE methodology this project has designed a digital decision aid tool (DAT) with the potential to estimate individual preferences in real time to inform clinical consultation decisions in persistent pain management.
Methods: Using a feasibility randomised control trial (RCT), this study aims to assess the feasibility of using this Understanding Persistent Pain (UPP) DAT in a pharmacy-based clinical setting and to test processes for a future definite randomised trial. Community and practice-based pharmacists (up to 10) will be recruited in NHS Grampian and trained in the use of the digital UPP DAT. Pharmacists will recruit up to 60 patients who are living with persistent pain. Patients will be randomised to one of two groups: using the UPP DAT or usual care. Pharmacists will follow up patients as needed according to clinical need and following standard practice. DCE response data collected by the UPP DAT will be analysed using the penalised logit model, allowing estimation of individual preferences in real time.
We will follow up pharmacists and patients who use the UPP DAT to gather feedback on their experiences.
Ethics and dissemination: This study received ethical approval from the North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee (21/NS/0059) and received Research & Development Management Permission to proceed from NHS Grampian (2021UA003E). The study has been registered in the ClinicalTrials.gov database. Findings will be disseminated in peer-reviewed publications, presentations, and
newsletters, and made available in the University of Aberdeen and Pharmacy Research UK websites
DCE methodology this project has designed a digital decision aid tool (DAT) with the potential to estimate individual preferences in real time to inform clinical consultation decisions in persistent pain management.
Methods: Using a feasibility randomised control trial (RCT), this study aims to assess the feasibility of using this Understanding Persistent Pain (UPP) DAT in a pharmacy-based clinical setting and to test processes for a future definite randomised trial. Community and practice-based pharmacists (up to 10) will be recruited in NHS Grampian and trained in the use of the digital UPP DAT. Pharmacists will recruit up to 60 patients who are living with persistent pain. Patients will be randomised to one of two groups: using the UPP DAT or usual care. Pharmacists will follow up patients as needed according to clinical need and following standard practice. DCE response data collected by the UPP DAT will be analysed using the penalised logit model, allowing estimation of individual preferences in real time.
We will follow up pharmacists and patients who use the UPP DAT to gather feedback on their experiences.
Ethics and dissemination: This study received ethical approval from the North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee (21/NS/0059) and received Research & Development Management Permission to proceed from NHS Grampian (2021UA003E). The study has been registered in the ClinicalTrials.gov database. Findings will be disseminated in peer-reviewed publications, presentations, and
newsletters, and made available in the University of Aberdeen and Pharmacy Research UK websites
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e066379 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | BMJ Open |
| Volume | 12 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| Early online date | 22 Sept 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 22 Sept 2022 |
Bibliographical note
AcknowledgmentsThe authors thank participants from previous stages that helped design the decision aid tool and study procedures for this feasibility study. They also thank Amanda Cardy and the NHS Research Scotland Primary Care (NRS Primary Care) network for their help recruiting healthcare professionals and patients in this and previous stages of the project, and members of the Patient Advisory Group
whose input throughout has helped guide the study. The authors thanks internal reviewers whose comments helped improve this Protocol. The authors also thank Dr Gin Nie Chua for her work in the grant awarding and literature review process.
Funding
This work was funded by Pharmacy Research UK (Grant PRUK-2016-PG57-1). Additional funding has been granted by the University of Aberdeen. The Health Economics Research Unit is supported by the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorate. The funders had no input to the study design, collection, management, analysis or interpretation of the data and will have no input to
the writing of the report or decision to submit for publication.
Data Availability Statement
No data available.Keywords
- HEALTH ECONOMICS
- PAIN MANAGEMENT
- PRIMARY CARE
Access to Document
- Loria-Rebolledo_etal_BMJ_Using_a_discrete_VOR
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