Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Formative Research
Date Submitted: Feb 21, 2022
Date Accepted: Jun 16, 2022
Exploring a need for cardiometabolic disease staging system as a computerized clinical decision support tool: a qualitative study
ABSTRACT
Background:
While cardiometabolic diseases are leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States, computerized tools for risk assessment of cardiometabolic disease are rarely integral components of primary care practice. Embedding cardiometabolic disease staging systems (CMDS) into computerized clinical decision support systems (CDSS) may assist with identifying and treating patients at greatest risk for developing cardiometabolic disease.
Objective:
This study aimed to explore the current approach to medical management of obesity and the need for CMDS system designed to aid medical management of people living with obesity, at risk of being obese, or diabetic at the point of care.
Methods:
Using a general inductive approach, this qualitative research study was guided by an interpretive epistemology. The method included semi-structured in-depth interviews with primary care providers (PCP) from university-based community health clinics. The literature informed interview protocol and included questions on PCPs’ experiences and the need for a tool to improve their ability to manage and prevent complications from overweight and obesity.
Results:
PCPs (N=10) described their current approaches and emphasized behavioral treatments consisting of combined diet, physical activity and behavior therapy as the first line of treatment for people who were overweight or obese. Results suggest that beneficial features of CDSS include: (1) clinically relevant and customizable support; (2) provision of comprehensive medical summary with trends; (3) availability of patient education materials and community resources; and (4) simplicity and easiness to navigate.
Conclusions:
Implementation of a cardiometabolic disease staging system via CDSS could enable primary care providers to better manage overweight, obesity and prevent diabetes based on risk assessment. Results from this study provide unique insight to developers and researchers to identify areas for design optimization for improved end user experience to ensure successful adoption of the CDSS.
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© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.