Improving Quality of Care in Rheumatoid Arthritis Through Mobile Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement: Focus Group...

Area of Science:

• Rheumatology
• Health Informatics
• Quality Improvement

Background:

• Leveraging mobile technology for patient-reported outcomes (PROs) integration into chronic disease management workflows.
• The need for efficient PRO collection in busy clinical settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe quality improvement efforts using tablets for PRO collection in an academic rheumatology practice.
• To support a treat-to-target (TTT) approach for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) management.

Main Methods:

• Designed a tablet-based process for routine PRO (RAPID3) collection at clinic check-in.
• Integrated real-time PRO data into the electronic medical record (EMR) for shared decision-making.
• Monitored completion rates and gathered patient feedback for process refinement.

Main Results:

• Over 4,200 RAPID3 surveys completed by 1,691 RA patients between May 2017 and January 2019.
• RAPID3 completion rates increased from 14.3% to 68.0% within months and were sustained.
• Patient feedback highlighted usability and the importance of explaining data in shared decision-making.

Conclusions:

• Developed a sustainable and reliable process for collecting RA patient-reported outcomes in waiting areas.
• Successfully integrated PRO data into the EMR for enhanced clinical decision-making during office visits.