This study extends arthritis employment research by examining a range of work changes. It highlights the dynamic interplay among arthritis, workplace, and psychosocial variables to understand adaptation to arthritis disability.

BackgroundDesigning appropriate studies for evaluating complex interventions, such as electronic health solutions to support integrated care, remains a methodological challenge. With the many moving parts of complex interventions, it is not always clear how program activities are connected to anticipated and unanticipated outcomes. Exploratory trials can be used to uncover determinants (or mechanisms) to inform content theory that underpins complex interventions before designing a full evaluation plan.ObjectiveA multimethod exploratory trial of the electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) tool was conducted to uncover contexts, processes and outcome variables, and the mechanisms that link these variables before full-scale evaluation. ePRO is a mobile app and portal designed to support goal-oriented care in interdisciplinary primary health care practices (clinical-level integration). This paper offers evaluation findings and methodological insight on how to use exploratory trial data to identify relevant context, process, and outcome variables, as well as central (necessary to achieving outcomes) versus peripheral (less critical and potentially context dependent) mechanisms at play.MethodsThe 4-month trial was conducted in 2 primary health care practices in Toronto, Canada. The patients were randomized into control and intervention groups and compared pre and post on quality of life and activation outcome measures. Semistructured interviews were conducted with providers and patients in the intervention group. Narrative analysis was used to uncover dominant mechanisms that inform the intervention’s content theory (how context and process variables are linked to outcomes).ResultsOverall, 7 providers, 1 administrator, and 16 patients (7-control, 9-intervention) participated in the study. This study uncovered many complex and nuanced context, process, and outcome variables at play in the intervention. Narrative analysis of patient and provider interviews revealed dominant story lines that help to tease apart central and peripheral mechanisms driving the intervention. Provider and patient story lines centered around fitting the new intervention into everyday work and life of patients and providers and meaningfulness of the intervention. These themes were moderated by patient-provider relationships going into and throughout the intervention, their comfort with technology, and the research process.ConclusionsIdentifying dominant story lines using narrative analysis helps to identify the most relevant context and process variables likely to influence study outcomes. Normalization process theory emerges as a useful theory to uncover underlying mechanisms because of its emphasis on the social production and normalization of technological, processual, and social aspects of work; all found to be critical to our intervention. The number of complex, overlapping influencing variables suggests that complex interventions such as ePRO require us to pay careful attention to central versus peripheral mechanisms that will influence s...

BackgroundGiven the complex and evolving needs of individuals with multimorbidity, the adoption of mHealth tools to support self-management efforts is increasingly being explored, particularly in primary care settings. The electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePRO) tool was codeveloped with patients and providers in an interdisciplinary primary care team in Toronto, Canada, to help facilitate self-management in community-dwelling adults with multiple chronic conditions.ObjectiveThe objective of study is to explore the experience and expectations of patients with multimorbidity and their providers around the use of the ePRO tool in supporting self-management efforts.MethodsWe conducted a 4-week pilot study of the ePRO tool. Patients’ and providers’ experiences and expectations were explored through focus groups that were conducted at the end of the study. In addition, thematic analyses were used to assess the shared and contrasting perspectives of patients and providers on the role of the ePRO tool in facilitating self-management. Coded data were then mapped onto the Individual and Family Self-Management Theory using the framework method.ResultsIn this pilot study, 12 patients and 6 providers participated. Both patients and providers emphasized the need for a more explicit recognition of self-management context, including greater customizability of content to better adapt to the complexity and fluidity of self-management in this particular patient population. Patients and providers highlighted gaps in the extent to which the tool enables self-management processes, including how limited progress toward self-management goals and the absence of direct provider engagement through the ePRO tool inhibited patients from meeting their self-management goals. Providers highlighted proximal outcomes based on their experience of the tool and specifically, they indicated that the tool offered valuable insights into the broader patient context, which helps to inform the self-management approach and activities they recommend to patients, whereas patients recognized the tool’s potential in helping to improve access to different providers in a team-based primary care setting.ConclusionsThis study identifies a more explicit recognition of the contextual factors that influence patients’ ability to self-manage and greater adaptability to accommodate patient complexity and provider workflow as next steps in refining the ePRO tool to better support self-management efforts in primary care ahead of its application in a full-scale randomized pragmatic trial.

Capacity in which she was invited: With qualifications in the disciplines of speech pathology and clinical neuropsychology, Prof. Douglas' research, among other topics, has focused on cognitivecommunication disorders and living well with acquired brain injury.