Testing the What Matters to Me workbook in a diverse sample of seriously ill patients and caregivers

We evaluated the What Matters to Me Workbook, a patient-facing version of the Serious Illness Conversation Guide co-created by Ariadne Labs and The Conversation Project.

We purposively recruited diverse seriously ill patients and caregivers in the US. Participants completed the Workbook, a survey, and a semi-structured in-depth interview about their experience. Qualitative analysis of interviews and notes was employed to extract themes. Simple descriptive statistics were employed to analyze eight investigator authored questions.

Twenty-nine study participants completed twenty-one interviews and twenty-five surveys. Ratings for safety (3.87/4, SD = 0.43) and acceptability (3.59/4, SD = 0.956) were higher than ratings for ease of use (3.30/4, SD = 0.97) and usefulness (3.24/4, SD = 0.80). Qualitative analysis identified that while the workbook was safe, acceptable, easy to use, and useful, it is more important who is recommending it and how they are explaining it.

If presented in the right way by a trustworthy person, the What Matters to Me Workbook can be an easy to use, useful, and safe resource for patients with serious illness and their caregivers.

The Workbook focuses on serious illness rather than end-of-life and meshes with a clinician-facing conversation guide and a health-system level intervention.