Disjunction Between Patient Narrative and Formulaic Thinking in the Doctor

This study is seeking whether giving or not giving a clinician a card with talking points in the form of a checklist about the patient's story affects the patients care experience or not

Study Overview

• Status: Withdrawn
• Conditions: Musculoskeletal Diseases
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Story checklist

Detailed Description

During an office visit, the clinician and the patient engage in dialogue and begin a relationship. This traditionally starts with the patient telling their story, which conveys why they decided to seek care. This study will determine the influence of a checklist specifically about the patient's narrative. The checklist will be used during the interview portion of the visit, to remind the clinician to stay curious about the person before them, their experience of the illness, and their explanatory model, and to help ensure that empathic opportunities are not missed.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Austin, Texas, United States, 78705
      • Austin Regional Clinic
    • Austin, Texas, United States, 78712
      • HTB Musculoskeletal Institute
    • Austin, Texas, United States, 78751
      • Orthopedic Specialists of Austin
    • Austin, Texas, United States, 78705
      • Texas Orthopedics
    • Austin, Texas, United States, 78756
      • ATX Ortho

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 14 years to 85 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• New patients
• Orthopedic visit

Exclusion Criteria:

• Languages other than English or Spanish.
• Cognitive dysfunction precluding completion of questionnaires.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Standard care; Clinician not given any cards about the patient's story.
Experimental: Story checklist; Clinician given a card with talking points in the form of a checklist about the patient's story.	Other: Story checklist; The story checklist consists of a couple of questions that gives the physician something to keep in mind while visiting the patients.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Patient Experience Measure questions	Questionnaire assessing patient's experience	through study completion, an average of 6 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Perceived empathy (JSPPPE)	Patient perceived of physician empathy as measured by the JSPPPE;The scores range from 1 ("Strongly Disagree") to 7 ("Strongly Agree"), with the total score being between 5 and 35. Higher scores represent greater empathic perception about the physician.	through study completion, an average of 6 months
Guttman	Patient Satisfaction as measured by the Guttman Scale, The total score is between 0 and 7, with higher scores indicating greater satisfaction.	through study completion, an average of 6 months
Guttman CEQ	Communication Effectiveness Questionnaire; The total score is the sum of all item scores (9 to 63) with higher scores representing a greater degree of perceived communication effectiveness.	through study completion, an average of 6 months
PROMIS PF CAT	Patient Physical Function is measure by the PROMIS PF CAT; Higher scores indicate better physical function, with a mean of 50 for the general US population	through study completion, an average of 6 months
NRS pain intensity assessment	Numeric rating scale = 11 point ordinal scale, the higher score indicates the more pain intensity	through study completion, an average of 6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Texas at Austin
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: David Ring, MD, PhD, The University of Texas at Austin

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): January 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): September 1, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 11, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 27, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): June 2, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 31, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 28, 2025
• Last Verified: July 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Orthopedics
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Musculoskeletal Diseases
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2020-01-0115

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No