Overview
Our client, a leader in structural heart technologies required quantitative evidence to back changing guidelines for transcatheter heart valve technology (TAVI). Surgical aortic valve replacement (sAVR) has been the gold standard treatment but with an ageing and increasingly multimorbid population, there has been an increasing role for less invasive TAVI technologies for a significant number of patients not referred or accepted for surgery.
Solution
Our client then wished to conduct a large conjoint analysis on treatment decision making between TAVI Vs. sAVR for different case scenarios. We persuaded our client to conduct a patient diary study instead, as it a more realistic methodology that collects data from ‘real time’ patients, as well as being more enjoyable for respondents to complete.
1000 + diaries were completed by 70 implanters (surgeons and cardiologists) across Europe. Respondents completed a comprehensive checklist of criteria describing the patient condition, the resulting treatment decision, and then asked reasons why the treatment option was selected.
Discriminant analysis was used to produce an interactive algorithm from a list of clinical criteria that provided the probability of different treatment choices.
Prior to initiating the diary survey, in-depth interviews were conducted with implanters at the PCR and EACTS with the client listening in, with the objective of confirming the criteria for inclusion in the diary study and also on the sampling requirements.
Outcome
Our client was provided with a powerful interactive tool to promote the development of guidelines