Patient Engagement With Digital Health Tools in Rheumatology
Patient Engagement With Digital Health Tools in Rheumatology
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the patient engagement with digital tools for diagnosis and monitoring of disease in rheumatology services
The investigators plan to undertake a mixed methods study to investigate a digital algorithm to potentially inform triage of new patient referral to rheumatology services, as well as to inform follow up review schedules. Current practice at out hospital is to ask all newly referred patients to complete a pre-appointment digital questionnaire prior to their clinic visit. Patients who need follow up are then routinely invited to continue to return interval questionnaires related to their symptoms between clinic visits.
The investigators believe that the questionnaire responses could enable appropriate (and safe) allocation to a particular clinic (e.g. urgent early arthritis clinic or general rheumatology clinic for a new referral), or define an appropriate clinic follow up interval for a repeat visit for patients with a rheumatic disease.
Our study aims to evaluate these questionnaires using data collected from routine clinical practice, as well a series of semi-structured interviews with service users.
Inclusion Criteria: quantitative phase:
Aged 18 years and above
Able to complete the questionnaire in English
1. New patient pre-appointment questionnaires
Referred as a new patient to the rheumatology outpatient department at Guys and St Thomas' Trust between 01/01/2019 to 01/10/2023 and sent a digital pre-appointment questionnaire
Electronic patient notes recorded between 01/01/2019 to 01/10/2024
2. Follow up patients PROM questionnaires
Patients under followup of the rheumatology department at Guys and St Thomas' Trust with a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis or axial spondyloarthropathy who have been added to the remote monitoring program between 01/01/2019 to 01/10/2023
Electronic patient notes recorded between 01/01/2019 to 01/10/2024
Inclusion criteria: qualitative phase:
Aged 18 years and above
1. New patient pre-appointment questionnaires
Referred as a new patient to the rheumatology outpatient department at Guys and St Thomas' Trust between 01/01/2019 to 01/10/2023 and sent a digital pre-appointment questionnaire
Able to communicate in English or any language offered for audio interpreting by the LanguageLine service
2. Follow up patients PROM questionnaires
Patients under followup of the rheumatology department at Guys and St Thomas' Trust with a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis or axial spondyloarthropathy who have been added to the remote monitoring program between 01/01/2019 to 01/10/2023
Able to communicate in English or any language offered for audio interpreting by the LanguageLine service
Exclusion Criteria: quantitative phase:
Exclusion criteria: qualitative phase:
nikita.arumalla@gstt.nhs.uk07834958748