Expert@Work - Effectiveness of a Digital Expert Team on Return to Work (Expert@Work)

Long-term sick leave is a challenge in Norway, and the healthcare and labor- and welfare services are often not coordinated in helping the sick-listed employees return to work. In this study, the investigators want to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention where an expert team provides advice for an individualized patient pathway based on information from a digital questionnaire and a video meeting with the sick-listed employee and the participant's general practitioner. The patient pathway should include both healthcare and labor- and welfare services measures.

Sick-listed patients with musculoskeletal- and/or common mental disorders are invited to join the study. They will receive a digital questionnaire and be randomized to either treatment as usual or personalized advice from an expert team. The team will be put together based on the response from the individual's questionnaire.

The investigators will evaluate the effect on return to work and the use of health care services 12 months after the intervention.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Musculoskeletal Diseases; Mental Disorder
• Intervention / Treatment: Procedure: Digital expert team

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 170
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Norway
  • Midt-Norge
    • Levanger, Midt-Norge, Norway, 7600
      • Sykehuset Levanger
    • Molde, Midt-Norge, Norway, 6412
      • Molde Sjukehus
    • Trondheim, Midt-Norge, Norway, 7006
      • St. Olavs hospital HF
    • Ålesund, Midt-Norge, Norway, 6017
      • Alesund sjukehus

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 60 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Sick-listed minimum 50% between 11 and 20 weeks
• Musculoskeletal disorder and/or common mental disorder
• Living in the county of Trøndelag or Møre- og Romsdal

Exclusion Criteria:

• Specific conditions such as fracture, trauma, infections, malignancy, dislocations, etc.
• Serious mental conditions or another serious disease that makes participation difficult
• Most likely to return to work within 2 weeks
• Not speaking/reading Norwegian

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Digital expert team; The participants allocated to this arm will receive personalized advice from an expert team. The participants will have one video meeting with the team and receive a written report.	Procedure: Digital expert team; A digital team will be appointed based on the participant's answers in the digital screening questionnaire. Members of the team can be specialists in Physical and rehabilitation medicine, psychologist, physiotherapist, social workers, and consultants in the labor- and welfare administration. The general practitioner will also be invited to the meeting.
No Intervention: Treatment as usual; The participants will answer a digital questionnaire and will get normal follow-up from his/her general practitioner and labor- and welfare administration (NAV).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Return to work	Time to return to work within 12 months for at least 4 consecutive weeks	12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Function	Approvement in function measured by Versus Arthritis Musculoskeletal Health Questionnaire (MSK-HQ). The MSK-HQ is scored on a range of 0-56, with a better score indicating better MSK-HQ health status	12 months
Change in pain	Change in pain measured on a numeric rating scale (0-10), with a higher score indicating more pain	12 months
Change in depression symptoms	Improvement in depression symptoms measured by Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). PHQ-9 is scored on a range of 0-27, with higher score indicating more serious symptoms	12 months
Change in anxiety symptoms	Improvement in anxiety symptoms measured by Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item (GAD-7). GAD-7 is scored on a range of 0-21, with higher score indicating more serious symptoms	12 months
Days lost from work	Lost workdays during one year after intervention	12 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Sleep quality and insomnia	Prevalence of insomnia and bad sleep quality and change after 12 months. Measured with Insomnia severity index (ISI). ISI is scored on a range from 0-4, with higher score indicating more serious symptoms.	12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: St. Olavs Hospital
• Collaborators: Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration
• Investigators: Study Director: Gunn Hege Marchand, PhD, St. Olavs hospital HF

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): October 13, 2022
• Primary Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2025
• Study Completion (Estimated): December 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 21, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 10, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): October 12, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 16, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 13, 2025
• Last Verified: May 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Musculoskeletal Diseases
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2021/11991

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

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