MM302 - What Patients Really Want: The How and Why of Patient-Oriented Tools

Abstract:
In this module, we will discuss the importance of a patient-oriented approach in hearing healthcare. We will describe group concept mapping, an innovative approach to measure patient perspectives. Furthermore, we will demonstrate how patient-oriented tools can be developed using group concept mapping as a starting place to gain an in-depth understanding of patient desires, opinions, and preferences. This module will include an interactive walk-through of this process, as well as a recent, novel use of this methodology to investigate preferences for specific hearing aid features, including those that separate entry-level and premium hearing aids.

Summary:
Person-centered care incorporates patients’ individual needs and preferences into the decision-making process prior to treatment (Ekman et al., 2011; Jaarsma et al., 2018; Leplege et al., 2007). Patient inclusion in decision-making reduces post-treatment regret and improves satisfaction (Mulley et al., 2012) and compliance (Bratzke et al., 2015). In a hearing healthcare context, patients can be included in the choice to adopt a hearing aid, the choice between hearing aids, choosing signal processing features, and choosing non-signal processing features. Their personal considerations in counselling and rehabilitation can also be based on personalized needs and preferences. Patient-centered approaches in hearing healthcare often use questionnaires to assess patient preference and subjective experiences. A wide variety of questionnaires are available, but do they capture the patient’s preferences?

New methods allow us to measure patient perspectives. One such innovative approach is group concept mapping, which “maps” patient-generated or clinician-generated concepts (Kane & Trochim, 2007, Rosas & Ridings, 2017). Group concept mapping has been used in other disciplines including medicine (Nilsson et al., 2012) and psychology (Donohoe et al., 2020), and recently in Audiology to study clinical uptake of remote hearing aid support by clinicians (Glista et al., 2020), factors influencing hearing aid adoption (Poost-Foroosh et al., 2011) and factors in hearing management (Bennett, 2019; Bennett et al., 2018).

In this module, we will demonstrate how patient-oriented measurements can be developed using group concept mapping as a starting place to gain in-depth understanding of patient desires, opinions, and preferences. We will provide a walk-through of the process, as well as a recent, novel use of this methodology to investigate preferences for specific hearing aid features, including those that separate entry-level and premium hearing aids (Saleh et al., 2021).

We will then apply this group concept mapping of hearing aid feature preference as a theoretical framework in the development of patient-oriented tools, such as questionnaires. This facilitates implementation of patient input in the hearing care journey, resulting in a tool not only designed for the patient, but by the patient.

An applied example using concept mapping to generate a patient-oriented measure for use in hearing aid selection will be discussed. The features identified in Saleh et al. (2021) were used as the theoretical framework in the development of a novel questionnaire, aimed at facilitating hearing aid selection. The Hearing Aid Feature Importance Evaluation (HAFIE) questionnaire allows the collection of patient importance ratings for features, using features which the patients themselves have identified as influencing their preference for a hearing aid. Interactive audience discussion of specific case examples will be used to illustrate the content, application, and interpretation of the HAFIE.