Video-based Consensus Opinion for Hand and Upper Extremity Problems

Pain

patients, puzzling, conditions

The investigators would like to determine if there is a difference in patient satisfaction among patients who have puzzling pain conditions and receive one evaluation from their treating physician, and those that receive an evaluation from their treating physician and from a group of consulting physicians by video. The investigators expect to enroll 128 patients at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Before visiting a specialist, patients have assumptions regarding diagnosis, etiology, prognosis, and preferred treatment for their condition. Naturally, some of these assumptions may be inaccurate or incomplete or there may be room for debate and disagreement even among specialists. We are looking for ways to make unexpected and indeterminate aspects of an illness less unsettling for patients. When the hand surgeon's advice doesn't ring true, the patient may lose confidence in that provider. Sometimes the interaction can feel disrespectful and even adversarial. We are curious whether patient's satisfaction with diagnosis, surgeon, and treatment plan would improve if they were able to get an opinion from many surgeons at once. One feasible way to do that would be to show an edited and anonymized video to a set of hand surgeons for their opinions on diagnosis and treatment. Primary study question: 1. Among patients with initially puzzling pains, there is no difference in satisfaction with diagnosis between patients that receive a video based consensus opinion and those that receive routine care from a single hand surgeon controlling for psychological factors, demographics, and initial and final diagnosis. Secondary study questions: 2. Among patients with initially puzzling pains, there is no difference in pain intensity and disability one month after the initial visit between patient that receive a consensus diagnosis and those that receive routine care from a single surgeon. 3. There is no variation in diagnosis between observers (Observers are hand surgeons viewing the visit video and consulting on the diagnosis).

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United States