Overview
Intermittent claudication is the most common symptom of peripheral arterial disease (PAD). The recommended therapy is supervised exercise therapy combined with lifestyle counselling, provided by a physiotherapist. Ideally, during the treatment process patients' values and preferences are incorporated with evidence-based knowledge; shared decision making (SDM). Evidence shows the use of SDM in daily practice is scarce. Therefore, personalized outcome forecasts which provide insight into an individual's personal prognosis (called KomPas) were implemented in 2020. Now, as a next step, KomPas is further developed into a guideline-based clinical decision support system. The result is called KomPas+, a tool which integrates the person-centered approach of KomPas with the guideline recommendations for the conservative treatment of people with intermittent claudication.The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of implementing KomPas+ in the physiotherapeutic treatment of patients with intermittent claudication on functional walking distance and health-related quality of life. Secondary, the level of SDM and person-centeredness of physiotherapists using KomPas or KomPas+ will be assessed. Third, the implementation process will be evaluated.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria Primary objective:
- All therapists affiliated with Chronisch Zorgnet and specialized in the treatment of people with intermittent claudication are eligible to participate. Besides, all patients referred to a Chronisch Zorgnet therapist with intermittent claudication specialty are eligible to participate.
Inclusion Criteria Secondary objective:
- Provides written informed consent (both therapist and patients)
- Therapists should have finished two KomPas (control group) or KomPas+ (experimental group) e-learnings
- Therapists should have applied KomPas (control group) or KomPas+ (experimental group) to at least one patient with intermittent claudication
Inclusion Criteria Third objective:
- All therapists affiliated with Chronisch Zorgnet and specialized in the treatment of people with intermittent claudication who are included in the experimental group are eligible to participate.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Not applicable due to the "real world" setting of the study.