Evaluating Comparative Effectiveness Research Priorities for Care Coordination in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Community-Based eDelphi Study

BACKGROUND: Despite research supporting the use of care coordination in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), there is relatively little known about the comparative effectiveness of different strategies used to organize care for patients. To investigate the most important COPD care coordination strategies, community-based stakeholder input is needed, especially from medically underserved populations. Web-based platforms are electronic tools now being used to bring together individuals from underrepresented populations to share input and obtain clarification on comparative effectiveness research (CER) ideas, questions, and hypotheses. OBJECTIVE: Use low computer-literate, collaborative survey technology to evaluate stakeholder priorities for CER in COPD care coordination. METHODS: A mixed-method, concurrent triangulation design was used to collect survey data from a virtual advisory board of community-based stakeholders including medically underserved patients with COPD, informal caregivers, clinicians, and research scientists. The eDelphi method was used to conduct 3 iterative rounds of Web-based surveys. In the first 2 survey rounds, panelists viewed a series of “mini research prospectus” YouTube video presentations and rated their level of agreement with the importance of 10 COPD care coordination topics using 7-point Likert scales. In the final third-round survey, panelists ranked (1=most important, 8=least important) and commented on 8 remaining topics that panelists favored most throughout the first 2 survey rounds. Following the third-round survey, panelists were asked to provide feedback on the potential impact of a Web-based stakeholder engagement network dedicated to improving CER in COPD. RESULTS: Thirty-seven panelists rated the following care coordination topics as most important (lower means indicate greater importance): (1) measurement of quality of care (mean 2.73, SD 1.95); (2) management of COPD with other chronic health issues (mean 2.92, SD 1.67); (3) pulmonary rehabilitation as a model for care (mean 3.72; SD 1.93); (4) quality of care coordination (mean 4.12, SD 2.41); and (5) comprehensive COPD patient education (mean 4.27, SD 2.38). Stakeholder comments on the relative importance of these care coordination topics primarily addressed the importance of comparing strategies for COPD symptom management and evaluating new methods for patient-provider communication. Approximately one half of the virtual panel assembled indicated that a Web-based stakeholder engagement network could enable more online community meetings (n=19/37, 51%) and facilitate more opportunities to suggest, comment on, and vote for new CER ideas in COPD (n=18/37, 49%). CONCLUSIONS: Members of this unique virtual advisory board engaged in a structured Web-based communication process that identified the most important community-specific COPD care coordination research topics and questions. Findings from this study support the need for more CER that evaluates quality of care measures used to assess the delivery of treatments and interventions among medically underserved patients with COPD.