Endocrine Abstracts

Background: The high prevalence of chronic disease urges for new ways of working with our patients as active members of the health care team to better design processes for ongoing supportive treatment. Our Division of Endocrinology & Metabolism at the University of Alberta prioritized the need to improve care for those living with adrenal insufficiency (AI). We have worked with AI patient partners to address learning needs and priorities of our patients, their caregivers, and health professionals.

Methods: We created a Divisional Quality Improvement (QI) team and trained members in theEvidence-based Practice for Improving Quality program (www.epiq.ca). For needs assessment and to better understand our local clinical context, we surveyed local endocrinologists on their current management approach for AI patients. In order to check provider assumptions and to ensure patient-centred care, we partnered with Human-Centred Design team and started AI patient engagement in a workshop series. We reviewed resources available in Canadian and international societies as a group, and used human-centred design methods to co-create new educational materials for improved AI shared decision making.

Results: 15 endocrinologists filled the survey, revealing that existing endocrinologist practice and materials provided are variable and inconsistent. Five patient partners from the Canadian Addison Society joined our QI team. Using human centred design methods to review reported endocrine practice and explore needs and wants from the patient perspective. Our QI team prioritized development ofemergency room (ER) AI material and created an emergency card and emergency letter. We incorporated feedback from ER physicians and nurses to ensure end-user clinical acceptability.

Conclusion: The goal of these human-centred co-creations is to ensure that the AI resources support the educational needs of both patients living with chronic disease and clinicians during a clinical encounter. We believe materials developed from our collaborative approach incorporating cumulative experience and expertise from all stakeholders will result in improved care for our patients. Our QI team is working on a resource dissemination plan.