Determining Care Coordination Research Priorities in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD): An eDelphi Study with Community Stakeholders

Effective care coordination can prevent hospitalization and re-hospitalization among patients with COPD; however, there is relatively little comparative effectiveness research (CER) examining the benefits and potential harms of existing strategies for delivering care in COPD. National attempts to determine CER priorities in COPD did not include actual patients or informal caregivers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to collaborate with local stakeholders, including medically underserved patients with COPD, informal caregivers, research scientists, and pulmonary clinicians, to develop consensus around the highest priority CER topics related to care coordination. The eDelphi method was used to gather data directly from stakeholder panelists through three iterative rounds of online surveys. In each round, panelists (n=37) ranked the importance of up to 10 care coordination research topics using a scale from 1 (Most Important) to 8 (Least Important). The following topics were ranked as most important by ≥ 80% of the stakeholder panel: (1) Measurement of Quality of Care (M=2.73, SD=1.95); (2) Management of COPD with Other Chronic Health Issues (M=2.92, SD=1.67); (3) Pulmonary Rehabilitation (M=3.72, SD=1.93); (4) Quality of Care Coordination (M=4.12, SD=2.41); and (5) Comprehensive COPD Patient Education (M=4.27, SD=2.38).  Results from this formative study will be used to develop a local, collaborative CER proposal in one or more of the five highest priority CER areas. Healthcare policymakers should consider using community-based consensus building techniques, such as the eDelphi method, to engage all stakeholders, including patients and informal caregivers, in an active attempt to ensure that CER initiatives are indeed patient-centered.