Project Summary
Background: A barrier to developing patient-centered approaches to improve outcomes and healthcare experience in the acute care setting is a lack of capacity for patient and family engagement in acute care research.
Proposed Solution: The project team plans to develop a set of tools and methodologies that can build capacity to engage patients and families in comparative effectiveness research (CER) and patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) in the acute care setting. The team will achieve this within a nationwide, 14-hospital research collaborative: the Hospital Medicine Reengineering Network (HOMERuN). The program will begin at three HOMERuN sites—the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) in Boston, and Christiana Care Health System in Delaware—before expanding to other sites.
Objectives:
Aim 1: Describe opportunities and challenges for patient, family member, and researcher engagement and collaboration in acute care research.
Aim 2: Develop a toolkit containing educational materials, activities, and a step-by-step guide that patients, family members, and researchers can use as they work through all stages of a research project together. This toolkit will be called the Acute Care Patient Engagement Toolkit.
Aim 3: Pilot test and evaluate the Acute Care Patient Engagement Toolkit and create an inaugural HOMERuN Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC).
Longer-term objectives include 1) expanding membership of PFAC to include other HOMERuN sites; 2) using the HOMERuN PFAC to develop a list of research priorities for acute care CER and PCOR; and 3) collaborating to develop HOMERuN as an engine of CER and PCOR efforts in priority areas relevant to patients with acute illnesses.
Activities: Aim 1 involves a focus group and structured interview study where stakeholders will be asked to describe the specific factors needed to allow patients and researchers to partner together on acute care research projects. The team will also complete a review of existing toolkits supporting stakeholder engagement in research that can be adapted to the acute care setting.
In Aim 2, the team will create an Acute Care Patient Engagement Toolkit. Investigators will base the foundational content of the toolkit on existing engagement frameworks and established activities that facilitate research engagement but are adapted to the acute care environment. The toolkit will also include contextual elements identified from Aim 1 plus input from patient and stakeholder partners.
Aim 3 activities include testing and evaluating the Acute Care Patient Engagement Toolkit and operationalizing a HOMERuN PFAC.
Expected Project Outcomes and Impact: The project team will have described elements and resources to inform engagement in acute care research. The review of existing toolkits to support engagement will provide critical information to support engagement efforts in CER and PCOR in acute care settings and more broadly. The work will also create an Acute Care Patient Engagement Toolkit program that can be disseminated and used by hospitalist groups nationally. The program will create the first national network of stakeholders who are engaged in CER and PCOR in acute care research.
Patient and Stakeholder Engagement Plan: The project team has partnered with four patients and family members, a PFAC coordinator, physicians, and researchers to conceptualize this proposal. Stakeholders will be involved in all stages of development, implementation, and dissemination of program activities. The team has also engaged a consulting partner—the Institute for Patient and Family Centered Care—that will provide training and input for the program.
Project Collaborators: The team has co-investigators from the BWH and Christiana Care Health System who will provide clinical, research, and patient engagement expertise.
Project Details
