Clinical trial NCT04932993: Writing Down Goals
Official title: Writing Down Goals
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: NA
Conditions: Musculoskeletal Diseases
Keywords: decisional conflict
Orthopedics
Lead sponsor: University of Texas at Austin
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2021-06-21
Enrollment: 128
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 89
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: All new, adult (18+ years old) patients seeing an orthopedic surgeon for a consultation will be invited to participate in this study. Patients randomly will be assigned to: write down goals their goals for their medical care (intervention) or not (usual visit control group). The research assistant will ask the patient to fill out a survey entailing demographics, JSPPE, the communication effectiveness score, the PAM score and a satisfaction scale at the end of the visit. A research assistant will record the diagnosis,
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: The women's health IPU at UT Health Austin is happy with having patients write down their goals at their first visit and then tracking those. It would be interesting to study people seeking musculoskeletal specialty care to determine whether asking patients what result of their care would be rated a success helps direct the clinician-patient interaction in a more fruitful direction compared to the usual clinical interaction.

Detailed description: People's stated preferences are often inconsistent with what matters most to them (their values). And they are often based on misconceptions, distress, and less effective cognitive coping strategies. For instance, a person might say "My goal is to have no pain" when that is not possible. Or they might say "My goal is to get the shot that fixes this" when there is no such shot. It may go without saying that people want: "To be able to live a normal lifestyle" and "To be able to accomplish most of their goals." In other words, people want to be able to be themselves. They are seeking care because they are not able to be themselves or they are concerned that they may not be able to be themselves. The word health comes from an old German word meaning "whole."

One part of good health is correcting or alleviating pathophysiology (e.g. reading glasses). Another part of good health is evolving one's inner narrative (e.g. "I'm older now and need glasses to read").

The women's health IPU at UT Health Austin is happy with having patients write down their goals at their first visit and then tracking those. It would be interesting to study people seeking musculoskeletal specialty care to determine whether asking patients what result of their care would be rated a success helps direct the clinician-patient interaction in a more fruitful direction compared to the usual clinical interaction.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Adult patients (18+)
* Orthopedic visit

Exclusion Criteria:

* Patients who are illiterate.
* Patients who do not speak English.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Decision conflict questionnaire
timeFrame: Baseline
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Decision regret questionnaire
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Jefferson Scale of Patient's Perceptions of Physician Empathy
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Patient Activation Measure-13
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Guttman Satisfaction scale
timeFrame: Baseline
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: Professor of Surgery, Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin
name: David Ring, MD, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: