Researchers at the University of Florida and University of Pennsylvania have reported success with a web-based communication method for the identification of relevant COPD care coordination topics based on a panel of persons from the scientific, medical, and patient community. For the study, researchers evaluated the most relevant COPD care coordination strategies based on input. A user-friendly web-based platform was used to survey comparative effectiveness research problems, ideas, priorities, and hypotheses in COPD care coordination among researchers, clinicians, caregivers, and medically underserved COPD patients.
The researchers used the eDelphi method, which is a structured method that relies on a panel of experts, and conducted three rounds of web-based surveys. The first two rounds involved 37 panelists visualizing a series of “mini research prospectus” YouTube video presentations and classifying the importance of ten COPD care coordination topics. At the end of the two rounds, the eight favorite topics were ranked and commented on a third round by the panelists. Panelists also provided feedback regarding the potential impact of a web-based engagement network.
The results of the study showed that the care coordination topics considered the most important were the following: management of COPD with other chronic health issues, pulmonary rehabilitation as a model for care, measurement of quality of care, and quality of care and comprehensive COPD patient education. A Lung Disease News report notes the panelists reported that it was important to compare the different care strategies for COPD management and assess new methods of patient-provider communication.
A total of 51% of the online panelists believed a web-based engagement network could allow more online community meetings, while 49% believed it could facilitate and create more opportunities for the general community, and the medical and scientific communities as well, to provide feedback or vote on new comparative effectiveness research ideas.
According to the Lung Disease News report, the researchers concluded that through a virtual advisory board using a structured web-based communication method, it was possible to identify the most relevant community-specific COPD care coordination research topics and questions. The authors believe there is a need for more comparative effectiveness research studies that assess quality of care parameters related to treatment and intervention among medical underserved COPD patients as well as emphasize the importance of involving patients and informal caregivers in this process.
Source: Lung Disease News
