JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

People from ethnic minority backgrounds are more at risk of poor care and outcomes in health services, this inequity is widely recognised. We used an adapted, experience-based co-design (EBCD) process to facilitate collaboration between staff and ethnic minority patients to identify key safety issues and devise a tailored solution at a cancer service in New South Wales, Australia. Identifying health service contact points relevant to medication concerns between appointments or hospital admissions was a key issue identified in the workshop. The co-design process resulted in the creation of a communication tool: Making it Meaningful (MiM). This protocol presents a pilot study testing whether MiM is feasible and acceptable for use with ethnic minority consumers in cancer services in Australia. This protocol is particularly significant as co-designed interventions are increasingly valued, but rarely documented in trials.

Objective:

To test whether MiM is feasible and acceptable for use with ethnic minority consumers in cancer services in Australia.

Methods:

A single-site, controlled before and after pilot study to determine the feasibility and acceptability of ‘MiM’. Forty patients from Chinese and Russian cultural backgrounds will be recruited; 20 treatment and 20 control. These cohorts were selected as the co-design participants identified these communities are at particular risk of medication safety concerns. The intervention group will use the MiM tool during usual appointments ,while the control group will receive routine care. Telephone surveys will be conducted with patients at three time points to assess patient knowledge and self-efficacy in medication management, and the perceived usability and acceptability of the MiM. Qualitative interviews with staff will be conducted at pilot conclusion to explore practitioner perceptions of MiM feasibility and acceptability.

Results:

Using Evidence Based Codesign (EBCD) we identified communication about medication, particularly between appointments, as a key issue. Increasing consumer engagement in medication management was identified as a strategy to reduce medication safety problems in cancer care; the MiM was developed to address this issue.

Conclusions:

This study involves implementation and evaluation of the feasibility and acceptability of the MiM, together with preliminary data on patient knowledge about prescribed medications and confidence in medication management, with a view to expanding the study to test whether the intervention is effective in improving patient outcomes. Clinical Trial: This protocol is registered with Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry RN: ACTRN12622001260718p