Development of an Osteoarthritis (OA) Care Plan to Improve Process and Quality of OA Treatment Decisions

January 14, 2026 updated by: Patricia Franklin, University of Massachusetts, Worcester

Patient Osteoarthritis Care Plan To Inform Optimal Treatment

Knee and hip osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common cause of disability in the U.S. and affects more than 60% of adults over 65 years. As the burden of knee and hip OA increases among aging adults, more patients are deciding to have joint replacement surgery. However, no clear guidelines exist for patients to determine if or when to undergo total joint replacement (TJR).

The investigators plan to develop a web-based system that will provide individualized patient OA Care Plans that will help patients make informed decisions about how to treat their arthritis. The investigators will be using this system with patients to see if they find it useful.

The investigators believe that the OA Care plan will improve the process and quality of OA treatment decisions and the quality of OA care.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

The investigators propose to prospectively randomize orthopedists, with their patients, to receive (or not) a real-time, web-based system intervention: the OA Care plan. The OA Care plan will include individualized, patient-centric information: (1) trended patient-reported OA pain and function, (2) tailored estimates of likely TJR benefits and risks based on a contemporary US cohort of 25,000 TJR patients (FORCE-TJR Registry), (3) evidence-based information for non-operative care, and (4) individual patient goals.

Specific Aims include:

Aim 1. Patients and their Caregivers/Trusted Others will refine the design, content, and usability of a real-time, web-based individual OA Care plan to guide TJR and non-operative OA care decisions.

Aim 2. Randomize 26 orthopedists, and their patients, to receive the OA Care plan at the time of orthopedic consultation (intervention) vs. usual care (control) and compare (a) OA care decision process and quality and (b) quality of OA care as measured by pain relief and functional gain in the two arms at 6 and 12 months after the decision, and assess the impact of decision quality on quality of OA care.

Aim 3. Randomize 36 orthopedists, and their patients, to receive the OA Care plan plus peer, family, and primary care physician support (OA Care plan+Support; intervention) vs. the OA Care plan alone and compare the quality of OA care decision and quality of care (pain relief, functional gain) in the two arms.

Based on the components of the Chronic Care Model, this technology-delivered, individualized OA Care plan will enable patients and clinicians to make treatment decisions based on patient symptoms, goals, and comparative effectiveness evidence. The investigators hypothesize that OA Care plan users, as compared to usual care, will report greater decision quality for both TJR or non-operative care, and better quality of care (less OA pain, greater function). Further, the investigators anticipate incremental effectiveness of the OA Care plan+Support (peer, family, and primary care support) on the same outcomes. Study results will guide future OA Care plan implementation to assure optimal healthcare for patients with advanced knee and hip OA. Finally, lessons learned from the evaluation of this automated patient-centric decision support system can be extended beyond OA and TJR to other elective surgical procedures to engage informed patients to make optimal individual decisions.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
5713

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Illinois
      • Chicago, Illinois, United States, 60611
        • Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

36 years to 95 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • All new patients to participating surgeon's practice for the purpose of evaluation of knee or hip OA are possible participants.
  • Patients must be 40 years of age or older and able to provide informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Inflammatory arthritis, such as rheumatoid or psoriatic arthritis
  • Recent knee or hip injury as purpose for visit
  • Pregnant women
  • Prisoners
  • Non-English speaking subjects- As we are refining and testing a web-based system intervention that provides individualized patient OA Care plans to improved shared decision making between patients and providers, for research purposes we must assure that the 'counseling' between the surgeon and patient will be in their native language. Once we have identified what materials work at the end of the study, we will translate materials into Spanish.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: OA Care Plan Intervention
For intervention sites, the patient and surgeon will receive the OA Care Plan (currently under development). The OA Care plan with have Patient Reported Outcomes, feedback reports, and risk factors for shared decision making.
Other: OA Care Plan
Patient and surgeon will receive the OA Care Plan (currently under development). This Care Plan will inform Shared Decision for treatment of moderate to sever OA, including surgical and non-surgical options.
No Intervention: Usual care
As collection of Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) is considered standard of care in orthopedics (CMS mandate, Bundled Payment requirements, and reporting for Qualified Clinical Data Registry requirement for example), usual care patients and surgeons will have the ability to see PRO scores.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Differences in Decision Conflict Scale With ASK vs Usual Care
Time Frame: 1 month post decision
The Decision Conflict Scale (DCS) is a validated self-report instrument that assesses uncertainty in healthcare decision making. The DCS consists of 16 items, each rated on a 5-point Likert scale. Scores are summed and transformed to a total score from 0 (no conflict) to 100 (high conflict). Lower scores indicate less decisional conflict (better outcome), and higher scores reflect greater decisional conflict (worse outcome). Mean (standard deviation) DCS scores are reported by study arm/group.
1 month post decision

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Differences in Pain Relief at 6 Months After Enrollment
Time Frame: 6 month followup
Pain relief was assessed using the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) for knee OA patients and the Hip disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (HOOS) for hip OA patients. The HOOS/KOOS is a broadly used 100 point scale (0-100) with 100 reflecting the maximum score and best health status for OA patients. The items are combined into two health domains: Pain and ADL (function/activities of daily living). The pain and ADL domains are scored 0-100 independently (with 100 reflecting the best health status for either pain or ADL). The domains scores are not additive.
6 month followup
Difference in Functional Gain at 6 Months
Time Frame: 6 month follow-up
Functional gain was assessed using the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) domain of the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) for knee OA, and the Hip disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (HOOS) for hip OA. The HOOS/KOOS is a broadly used 100 point scale (0-100) with 100 reflecting the maximum score and best health status for OA patients. The items are combined into two health domains: Pain and ADL (function/activities of daily living). The pain and ADL domains are scored 0-100 independently (with 100 reflecting the best health status for either pain or ADL). The domains scores are not additive.
6 month follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
University of Massachusetts, Worcester

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Patricia D Franklin, MD MBA MPH, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
November 1, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
April 4, 2023

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
April 4, 2023

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
January 28, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
March 30, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
April 5, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
February 2, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
January 14, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • IHS-1507-31714
  • PCORI IHS 1507-3174 (Other Grant/Funding Number: PCORI)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

There is no plan to make individual participant data available to other researchers

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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