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Incorporating PRO Data Into RA Clinical Encounters Using Health-IT (PACT)

Project Details -
Ongoing

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is the most common inflammatory arthritis affecting up to 1 percent of U.S. adults and causing significant disability, mortality, and economic burden. RA is unique among chronic diseases for having a robust, validated set of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) that have been shown to improve health status when used to guide clinical care. Although the effective use of PRO data for RA care and treatment is known to improve health outcomes, the use of PROs among patients with RA is inconsistent.

The goal of this project is to develop, implement, and evaluate an application to display PROs at the point of care to facilitate real-time conversations about PROs between clinicians and patients. The team will apply design science and health communication techniques to develop an electronic dashboard to display outcomes for patients with RA using patient-reported data, including disease activity, physical functioning, and pain scores.

The specific aim of this project is as follows:

  • To develop a dashboard that visually represents the trajectory of PROs for patients with RA in a way that is meaningful to patients and clinicians. 
  • To implement a dashboard to visualize PROs in RA in real time, in two healthcare systems. 
  • To evaluate the effect of the PRO dashboard on quality of care and health outcomes in RA in a pragmatic trial across two institutions. 

The project will assess acceptability and satisfaction for patients and clinicians, and any effects on clinical work flow. Incorporating real-time, easy-to-interpret visualizations of PRO data into clinical encounters has the potential to increase patient engagement and shared decisionmaking, and is hypothesized to improve health outcomes and reduce disability for patients with RA.