Smith, KA, Vennik, J, Morrison, L, Hughes, S, Steele, M, Tiwari, R, Bostock, J, Howick, J, Mallen, CD, Little, P, Ratnapalan, M, Lyness, E, Misurya, P, Leydon, GM, Dambha-Miller, H, Everitt, HA and Bishop, FL (2021) Harnessing Placebo Effects in Primary Care: Using the Person-Based Approach to Develop an Online Intervention to Enhance Practitioners' Communication of Clinical Empathy and Realistic Optimism During Consultations. Frontiers in Pain Research, 2. 721222 - ?. ISSN 2673-561X

[thumbnail of Harnessing Placebo Effects in Primary Care Using the Person-Based Approach to Develop an Online Intervention to Enhance Prac.pdf]
Preview
Text
Harnessing Placebo Effects in Primary Care Using the Person-Based Approach to Develop an Online Intervention to Enhance Prac.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

Background: Empathic communication and positive messages are important components of "placebo" effects and can improve patient outcomes, including pain. Communicating empathy and optimism to patients within consultations may also enhance the effects of verum, i.e., non-placebo, treatments. This is particularly relevant for osteoarthritis, which is common, costly and difficult to manage. Digital interventions can be effective tools for changing practitioner behavior. This paper describes the systematic planning, development and optimization of an online intervention-"Empathico"-to help primary healthcare practitioners enhance their communication of clinical empathy and realistic optimism during consultations. Methods: The Person-Based Approach to intervention development was used. This entailed integrating insights from placebo and behavior change theory and evidence, and conducting primary and secondary qualitative research. Systematic literature reviews identified barriers, facilitators, and promising methods for enhancing clinical empathy and realistic optimism. Qualitative studies explored practitioners' and patients' perspectives, initially on the communication of clinical empathy and realistic optimism and subsequently on different iterations of the Empathico intervention. Insights from the literature reviews, qualitative studies and public contributor input were integrated into a logic model, behavioral analysis and principles that guided intervention development and optimization. Results: The Empathico intervention comprises 7 sections: Introduction, Empathy, Optimism, Application of Empathico for Osteoarthritis, Reflection on my Consultations, Setting Goals and Further Resources. Iterative refinement of Empathico, using feedback from patients and practitioners, resulted in highly positive feedback and helped to (1) contextualize evidence-based recommendations from placebo studies within the complexities of primary healthcare consultations and (2) ensure the intervention addressed practitioners' and patients' concerns and priorities. Conclusions: We have developed an evidence-based, theoretically-grounded intervention that should enable practitioners to better harness placebo effects of communication in consultations. The extensive use of qualitative research throughout the development and optimization process ensured that Empathico is highly acceptable and meaningful to practitioners. This means that practitioners are more likely to engage with Empathico and make changes to enhance their communication of clinical empathy and realistic optimism in clinical practice. Empathico is now ready to be evaluated in a large-scale randomized trial to explore its impact on patient outcomes.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: © 2021 Smith, Vennik, Morrison, Hughes, Steele, Tiwari, Bostock, Howick, Mallen, Little, Ratnapalan, Lyness, Misurya, Leydon, Dambha-Miller, Everitt and Bishop. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Uncontrolled Keywords: placebo effects, primary medical care, doctor patient communication, clinical empathy, optimism, osteoarthritis, qualitative research, pain
Subjects: R Medicine > R Medicine (General)
R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
Divisions: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Medicine
Related URLs:
Depositing User: Symplectic
Date Deposited: 28 Mar 2022 07:54
Last Modified: 28 Mar 2022 07:54
URI: https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/10783

Actions (login required)

View Item
View Item