Real-World Evaluation of the Feasibility, Acceptability and Safety of a Remote, Self-Management Parkinson's Disease Care Pathway: A Healthcare Improvement Initiative.

BACKGROUND: There is significant unmet need for effective and efficiently delivered care for people with Parkinson's disease (PwP). We undertook a service improvement initiative to co-develop and implement a new care pathway, Home Based Care (HBC), based on supported self-management, remote monitoring and the ability to trigger a healthcare contact when needed. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate feasibility, acceptability and safety of Home Based Care. METHODS: We evaluated data from the first 100 patients on HBC for 6 months. Patient monitoring, performed at baseline and 6-monthly, comprised motor (MDS-UPDRS II and accelerometer), non-motor (NMSQ, PDSS-2, HADS) and quality of life (PDQ) measures. Care quality was audited against Parkinson's UK national audit standards. Process measures captured feasibility. Acceptability was assessed using a mixed-methods approach comprising questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. RESULTS: Between October 2019 and January 2021, 108 PwP were enrolled onto HBC, with data from 100 being available at 6 months. Over 90% of all questionnaires were returned, 97% were complete or had < 3 missing items. Reporting and communications occurred within agreed timeframes. Compared with baseline, after 6m on HBC, PD symptoms were stable; more PwP felt listened to (90% vs. 79%) and able to seek help (79% vs. 68%). HBC met 93% of national audit criteria. Key themes from the interviews included autonomy and empowerment. CONCLUSIONS: We have demonstrated acceptability, feasibility and safety of our novel remotely delivered Parkinson's care pathway. Ensuring scalability will widen its reach and realize its benefits for underserved communities, enabling formal comparisons with standard care and cost-effectiveness evaluation.

Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement in the Development of a Platform Clinical Trial for Parkinson's Disease: An Evaluation Protocol.

Background: Patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) in the design of trials is important, as participant experience critically impacts delivery. The Edmond J Safra Accelerating Clinical Trials in PD (EJS ACT-PD) initiative is a UK consortium designing a platform trial for disease modifying therapies in PD. Objective: The integration of PPIE in all aspects of trial design and its evaluation throughout the project. Methods: PwP and care partners were recruited to a PPIE working group (WG) via UK Parkinson's charities, investigator patient groups and participants of a Delphi study on trial design. They are supported by charity representatives, trial delivery experts, researchers and core project team members. PPIE is fully embedded within the consortium's five other WGs and steering group. The group's terms of reference, processes for effective working and PPIE evaluation were co-developed with PPIE contributors. Results: 11 PwP and 4 care partners have supported the PPIE WG and contributed to the development of processes for effective working. A mixed methods research-in-action study is ongoing to evaluate PPIE within the consortium. This includes the Patient Engagement in Research Scale -a quantitative PPIE quality measure; semi-structured interviews -identifying areas for improvement and overall impressions of involvement; process fidelity- recording adherence; project documentation review - identifying impact of PPIE on project outputs. Conclusions: We provide a practical example of PPIE in complex projects. Evaluating feasibility, experiences and impact of PPIE involvement in EJS ACT-PD will inform similar programs on effective strategies. This will help enable future patient-centered research.

Incorporating usability evaluation into iterative development of an online platform to support research participation in Parkinson's disease: a mixed methods protocol.

INTRODUCTION: Many people with Parkinson's (PwP) are not given the opportunity or do not have adequate access to participate in clinical research. To address this, we have codeveloped with users an online platform that connects PwP to clinical studies in their local area. It enables site staff to communicate with potential participants and aims to increase the participation of the Parkinson's community in research. This protocol outlines the mixed methods study protocol for the usability testing of the platform. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will seek user input to finalise the platform's design, which will then be deployed in a limited launch for beta testing. The beta version will be used as a recruitment tool for up to three studies with multiple UK sites. Usability data will be collected from the three intended user groups: PwP, care partners acting on their behalf and site study coordinators. Usability questionnaires and website analytics will be used to capture user experience quantitatively, and a purposive sample of users will be invited to provide further feedback via semistructured interviews. Quantitative data will be analysed using descriptive statistics, and a thematic analysis undertaken for interview data. Data from this study will inform future platform iterations. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Plymouth (3291; 3 May 2022). We will share our findings via a 'Latest News' section within the platform, presentations, conference meetings and national PwP networks.