Develop and implement a highly patient specific decision aid for patients with hip- or knee osteoarthritis

Hip- and knee osteoarthritis are leading causes of disability resulting in joint pain and stiffness. Total hip- and knee arthroplasty (THA and TKA) are a recommended intervention when conservative management appears to be ineffective and disability is significant. Due to this surgical intervention, quality of life rises while the functionality of the joints is ameliorated extensively. Although THA and TKA are considered safe, complications can interfere with a successful outcome or can even put patients in a life-threatening situation. Study findings show that comorbid diseases and medication use are known to influence complication risk and patient outcome.

Decision aids are commonly used to inform patients and to support the patient and physician to think about the level of experienced pain and discomfort, the personal circumstances and the intended type of surgery. These factors and the complication risk can influence which treatment fits best in the patients individual situation.
Until now, decision aids provide general information about treatment options and complication risk. Since one of the main challenges for physicians is to inform the individual patient by providing personal information about the complication risk, we aim to update the decision aid with a pre-operative risk estimation tool which takes the comorbid diseases and medication use of the individual patient into account.  

The aim of this project is to develop and implement a decision aid for patients with hip- or knee osteoarthritis to facilitate shared decision making by providing predicted outcomes which are highly patient specific.

Researcher for this project: Lieke Sweerts.