Improving Surgical Communication for Patients in Wisconsin

NCT06647303 | Recruiting DMC

• 3 other identifiers: 2024-1354A539750Protocol Version 4/17/2025
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 580
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The purpose of this study is to evaluate a new training program to support communication between surgeons and their patients. The goal of the training program is to help patients get the information they need to make treatment decisions that are right for them. Participants will complete surveys, attend a focus group, or receive training on Better Conversations, depending on the type of participant.

Conditions

Surgeons; Surgical Procedure, Unspecified

Keywords

decision making; communication

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Effect of automated training program

  Specialists will train 10 surgeons, audio recording 150 surgical consultations with surgical candidates. 100 audio recordings will be used as a training set to develop an automated assessment and feedback program. 50 recordings will be used to measure fidelity to the intervention with a summative assessment. 10 additional surgeons will be trained using the automated training and researchers will audio record 150 more surgical consultations with surgical candidates. Automated feedback will be provided for 100 of the consultations and researchers will measure fidelity to the automated intervention with a summative assessment of 50 consultations. The effect of the automated training program will be tested by comparing summative assessments of surgeon performance between the two differently-trained groups. Summative assessments to identify strengths and weaknesses of the automated training program will be used to revise the training iteratively for future study.

  Up to 4 years

• Compare effectiveness of specialist-delivered training versus automated training on participant-reported measures of surgeon communication

  Researchers will compare surgical candidate participant survey results between surgeons who received specialist-delivered training versus those who received automated training.

  Up to 4 years

Other Outcomes (1)

• To identify survey measures that have a strong baseline variance, the number of participants who evaluate communication skills of the surgeon in the top 10 percentile of scoring

  Up to 4 years

Study Arms (3)

Surgical candidate

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants who are undergoing surgical consultation

Other: Surveys

Stakeholder Focus Group

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants have previous experience with surgery

Other: Focus Group

Surgeons

EXPERIMENTAL

Surgeons from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Surgery with an outpatient surgical clinic who treat adult patients at UW Health

Behavioral: Training on communication framework

Interventions

Training on communication framework BEHAVIORAL

Surgeons will receive training on the Better Conversations framework

Surgeons

Focus Group OTHER

Participants will attend a focus group to discuss the survey instruments used in this study which will help with future study design

Stakeholder Focus Group

Surveys OTHER

Participants will complete surveys regarding the surgeon's communication skills

Surgical candidate

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Surgeons:
• Surgeons from University of Wisconsin - Madison Department of Surgery who have an outpatient surgical clinic and treat adult patients at UW Health
• Surgical candidates:
• Age 18 or older
• Present to an enrolled surgeon's clinic with a surgical problem
• Decision making ability
• Speak English
• Stakeholders:
• Must have previous experience with surgery (within 10 years)
• Speak English

You may not qualify if:

• Surgeons:
• Solely treat minors (under age 18)
• Surgical candidates:
• Lacking decision making capacity
• Unable to speak English
• Stakeholders:
• Unable to speak English

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Wisconsin, Madison: lead

Study Sites (1)

University of Wisconsin

Madison, Wisconsin, 53705, United States

RECRUITING

Related Links

• Related Info

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Communication

Interventions

Focus Groups; Surveys and Questionnaires

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavior

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Data Collection; Epidemiologic Methods; Investigative Techniques; Health Care Evaluation Mechanisms; Quality of Health Care; Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation; Public Health; Environment and Public Health

Study Officials

• Margaret (Gretchen) Schwarze, MD, MPP

  University of Wisconsin, Madison

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Kyle J Bushaw, MA

CONTACT

608-265-2904; bushaw@surgery.wisc.edu

Margaret (Gretchen) L Schwarze, MD, MPP

CONTACT

608-265-4420; schwarze@surgery.wisc.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 16, 2024
• First Posted: October 17, 2024
• Study Start: November 18, 2024
• Primary Completion (Estimated): November 1, 2028
• Study Completion (Estimated): November 1, 2028
• Last Updated: October 22, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-10

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

US (1)