Improving communication and innovation

National guidance states that patients must be fully informed if a treatment option is innovative. Patients will require some level of baseline information on which to base further discussion, formulate questions, and make decisions about their healthcare. Our team have developed a core information set (CIS) to guide discussions with patients offered new surgical and orthopaedic procedures and devices. We will now investigate how to translate the CIS into practice, with a view to fine-tuning the CIS and developing additional materials that optimise its use.

Our work will involve the use of qualitative research methods to work with interested groups of key stakeholders. We will conduct interviews with a range of healthcare professionals to understand their views on the CIS. We will also audio-record consultations where various innovative procedures are discussed with eligible patients to explore how topics identified in the CIS are discussed in real interactions, and interview patients to understand their interpretations of the information relayed to them. This work will enable us to finalise the CIS and will inform feedback/training to improve healthcare professionals’ confidence and skills to improve communication around surgical and orthopaedic innovation.