Virtual Clinic Follow-up for Joint Replacement
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Providing a standardised approach to virtual clinic follow-up of total joint replacement
IRAS ID
218624
Contact name
Faculty Research Ethics & Governance Administrator
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Leeds
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 31 days
Research summary
Hip and knee total joint replacement (TJR) is rapidly increasing which places a burden for follow-up on overstretched orthopaedic services. Therefore, in a few hospitals in the UK, there are ‘virtual clinics’ in development which usually involve patients completing a questionnaire at home and attending at their convenience for an X-ray, with a subsequent letter from the orthopaedic consultant informing the patients of their need for follow-up. However, it is important that there are appropriate questionnaires, which are sensitive to identifying potential problems with a patient’s TJR; that there is a structured way of evaluating the X-ray to enable an appropriate follow-up decision to be made; and guidance to the surgeon as to the most appropriate timing of when surgery may be needed again.
The overall aim of this study is to provide a standardised approach and assessment for virtual clinic follow-up of TJR patients and the subsequent management of patients identified by this approach as ‘at risk’. There will be four workstreams. The first will develop an existing and tested patient-completed questionnaire using a Delphi process, and then perform pre-testing of the questionnaire using the think-aloud technique involving patients who have had a primary hip or knee TJR. The second workstream will develop a standardised protocol for reporting of hip and knee replacement X-rays, again using a Delphi process with an expert panel led by musculoskeletal radiologists. The third will utilise a Delphi process and the expertise of the orthopaedic surgeons from workstreams 1 and 2 to develop a best practice guide for those patients identified ‘at risk’ and requiring recall. The final workstream will be the testing of the new standardised approach using the newly-developed Mark 2 questionnaire, X-ray review and guidance. This research will provide the assessment tools required for use in virtual clinics in the NHS.
REC name
London - City & East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/0530
Date of REC Opinion
23 Mar 2017
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion