Project title: Improving the Qualitative and Quantitative Outcomes of Dupuytren’s Disease

Miss Hawys Lloyd-Hughes - update 2024

Since being awarded the BSSH Research Fellowship and starting my DPhil my project has evolved and improved following input from the academics at Oxford.

I am currently evaluating outcomes and experiences of clinical care in common hand conditions from both patients and expert clinician perspectives. This is with a view to improve the quality of care and quality of research for patients with common hand conditions through robust and contemporary outcome measurement and experience evaluation. A new hand PROM will be developed in line with the Consensus-based Standards for the selection of health status Measurement Instruments (COSMIN).

Achievements so far:
I have submitted 3 grant applications and I am awaiting the outcome:
1.National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Fellowship
2. Arthritis Research UK (ARUK) Fellowship.
3.Royal College of Surgeons of England Research Fellowship.

I have submitted a successful application for support from Oxford Outcomes. Oxford Outcomes is one of the international market leaders in Health Economics, Epidemiology, PRO research and PRO translation. The team will provide guidance and advise throughout the ooutcomes aspect of my work.

I have nearly completed a PRISMA guided systematic review of all hand patient reported outcome measures. MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO and CINAHL databases have been reviewed. A total of 6221 references were categorised. All relevant hand PROMS have been analysed and evaluated as per the COSMIN and FDA guidelines.

I have ethical approval granted from the University of Oxford Research and Development department to undertake the first qualitative study of pragmatic expert clinician opinion of current and future hand PROMs is underway. The purpose of the study is to interview hand surgeons and hand therapists regarding their use and background knowledge of current PROMS with a focus on determining ideal content of a new PROM and it’s implementation.

A stakeholder group comprising of key individuals will be organised to steer the project. Advisory group representatives will provide advice and facilitate the implementation and conduct of the research. The group will consist of patient representatives, key hand healthcare providers, key hand researchers and healthcare policy advisors. To follow are the patient interviews, questionnaire development, validation and implementation.