Collaborative consultations in multidisciplinary glaucoma clinics
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Assessment of collaborative consultation skills during multidisciplinary glaucoma consultations.
IRAS ID
235400
Contact name
Michael Smith
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 9 months, 1 days
Research summary
Shared (or collaborative) decision making is the conversation that happens between a patient (and their loved ones) and their health professional to understand clinical issues and reach a healthcare choice together. Glaucoma, as a chronic incurable treatment requiring lifelong treatment, is well suited to a collaborative approach. \n\nPrevious studies, however, suggest that most glaucoma consultations are “doctor-centred”. Evidence from a small number of studies in glaucoma and a larger number of studies in other areas of medicine suggest that increasing the involvement of patients in decisions about their care may improve the proportion of patients who take their treatment regularly, therefore reducing the chance of visual loss from glaucoma.\n\nThere is only a small number of previous studies looking at shared decision making in ophthalmology. These studies have looked at consultations involving doctors, and this limits their relevance to the type of glaucoma care delivery we have in the UK, which tends to involve both doctors and non-medical practitioners such as nurses, optometrists and other staff groups.\n\nIn this study we will observe routine glaucoma consultations and assess the degree of collaborative clinician-patient interaction and shared decision making which occurs. We will also interview the patients involved in these consultations to determine their experience of the consultation, and also whether they would be interested in receiving additional information or attending information sessions to improve their ability to be involved in decisions about their care. Due to the limited previous studies in this area we have designed this study as a feasibility study. This means that it is a small scale study which aims to determine whether a larger study in this area would be possible to undertake, and also helps to determine any changes to the study design which should be made prior to undertaking a larger study. \n
REC name
South West - Cornwall & Plymouth Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/SW/0244
Date of REC Opinion
8 Nov 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion