Assessing Patient-provider Interactions During the Preoperative Anesthesia Consult

NCT ID: NCT04508543

Last Updated: 2025-02-13

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Total Enrollment

110 participants

Study Classification

OBSERVATIONAL

Study Start Date

2021-12-07

Study Completion Date

2025-02-10

Brief Summary

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This will be a prospective, observational, single-center study to evaluate the effect of race and ethnicity on anesthesia provider-patient interactions. The investigators will also attempt to validate a new tool for assessing non-verbal communication during the preanesthesia consult.

Masking:

1. Patient
2. Anesthesia providers (attending anesthesiologist and resident or Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist)

The patient and anesthesia provider(s) will not be told that the purpose of the study is to compare provider-patient interactions with minority patients to provider-patient interactions with Caucasian patients. The patient and anesthesia provider will be told that the investigators are conducting a study to evaluate provider-patient communication in the preanesthesia setting. The outcome assessor will be part of the research team. Accordingly, they will not be masked.

This is a pilot study void of sample size calculations. The investigators hope to enroll 100-200 patients in the study. While not a randomized study, the investigators hope to achieve a balanced number of minority and Caucasian patients.

Detailed Description

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Primary Objective:

1\. To compare nonverbal communication score (NCS, range 0 - 4) between minority and Caucasian non-Hispanic patients. The score is a sum of four components, each contribute to a score range 0 - 1. The four components are: percent time spent with open body language, percent time spent interacting with the patient or surrogate, distance from the patient along the long axis of the patient's body (distance from the head), and distance from the patient along the axis perpendicular to the patient's body (distance from the handrail).

Secondary Objectives:

1. To evaluate the association between NCS and patient medical risk, defined by the Charlson Co-Morbidity Index, range 0 - 37).
2. To evaluate the association between NCS and surgical risk. High risk surgeries will include intraperitoneal, intrathoracic, and suprainguinal vascular surgery, as classified by the Revised Cardiac Risk Index (RCRI). Lower risk surgery will include surgery in all other locations.
3. To evaluate the association between NCS and anesthesia decision making. In particular the investigators will evaluate the association between NCS and the incidence of arterial line insertion, the incidence of 2nd peripheral intravenous line insertion, the incidence of foley catheterization, the incidence of regional anesthesia blocks placed for postoperative analgesia, and parenteral morphine equivalent administration during surgery.
4. To evaluate the association between NCS and change in patient anxiety, as assessed by change in patient anxiety measured by the difference in anxiety on a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score before preanesthesia anesthesia consult and after preanesthesia anesthesia consult.
5. To evaluate the association between NCS and the duration of the preanesthesia anesthesia consult, defined between the time the anesthesia provider enters the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) bay and the time the anesthesia provider leaves the PACU bay.
6. To evaluate the impact of the observer to the study result, which will be assessed by recording the number of times the anesthesia provider looks at the outcome assessor.

Feasibility assessment: Feasibility for future investigation will be assessed by analyzing the following outcomes. Success will need to be found in all of the following areas to conclude a larger prospective study is feasible.

1. Is data collection by an observer technically feasible? Ability to obtain complete data to compute the primary outcome in \> 95% of patients will be threshold for success.
2. Is the patient consent rate reasonable? Ability to consent \> 50% of eligible patients will be the threshold for success.
3. Is there good agreement between raters? Mean NCS \< 10% between raters will be the threshold for success.
4. Is the sample size, based upon the found difference in NCS between minority and Caucasian non-Hispanic patients, reasonable?

A sample size calculation yielding less than 500 patients will be the threshold for success.

Population: Patients will be 18 years old or greater, undergoing surgery in the South Operating Rooms at Oregon Health \& Science University and possessing the capacity for consent.

Number of Sites: Single center trial

Study Arms: Minority (case): Self-identified as being a member of group traditionally underrepresented in the medical profession relative to the proportion in the general population: African-American/Black, Mexican-American, Native American (American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians), and mainland Puerto Rican.

Control: Self-identified as Caucasian and non-Hispanic

Study Duration: Institutional Review Board submission and approval is expected to take 3 months. Study initiation, enrollment, and data collection is expected to take 12 months. Data analysis, manuscript writing, editing, submission and revision to a peer-reviewed journal is expected to take 12 months.

In summary, the study should be completed in under 3 years.

Subject Participation Duration: Individual subjects will be included the study for a portion of their time in the PACU for preanesthesia assessment. Total time of subject participation including time for recruitment, enrollment, data collection during the preanesthesia consult, and post-consult data collection will be less than 1 hour.

Estimated Time to Complete Enrollment: Estimated time from enrollment into study of the first subject to enrollment into study of the last subject is 12 months.

Conditions

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Racism Healthcare Disparities Minority Health

Study Design

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Observational Model Type

COHORT

Study Time Perspective

PROSPECTIVE

Study Groups

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Minority (Case)

Self-identified as being a member of group traditionally underrepresented in the medical profession relative to the proportion in the general population: African-American/Black, Mexican-American, Native American (American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians), and mainland Puerto Rican.

Non-verbal communication score

Intervention Type OTHER

1\. To compare nonverbal communication score (NCS, range 0 - 4) between minority and Caucasian non-Hispanic patients. The score is a sum of four components, each contribute to a score range 0 - 1. The four components are: percent time spent with open body language, percent time spent interacting with the patient or surrogate, distance from the patient along the long axis of the patient's body (distance from the head), and distance from the patient along the axis perpendicular to the patient's body (distance from the handrail).

Caucasian (Control)

Self-identified as Caucasian and Non-Hispanic

Non-verbal communication score

Intervention Type OTHER

1\. To compare nonverbal communication score (NCS, range 0 - 4) between minority and Caucasian non-Hispanic patients. The score is a sum of four components, each contribute to a score range 0 - 1. The four components are: percent time spent with open body language, percent time spent interacting with the patient or surrogate, distance from the patient along the long axis of the patient's body (distance from the head), and distance from the patient along the axis perpendicular to the patient's body (distance from the handrail).

Interventions

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Non-verbal communication score

1\. To compare nonverbal communication score (NCS, range 0 - 4) between minority and Caucasian non-Hispanic patients. The score is a sum of four components, each contribute to a score range 0 - 1. The four components are: percent time spent with open body language, percent time spent interacting with the patient or surrogate, distance from the patient along the long axis of the patient's body (distance from the head), and distance from the patient along the axis perpendicular to the patient's body (distance from the handrail).

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* 18 years of age or greater
* Having surgery in the South Operating Rooms of Oregon Health \& Science University
* Possessing the capacity for consent

Exclusion Criteria

* Children
* Vulnerable populations including prisoners and decisionally impaired adults
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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Oregon Health and Science University

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Brandon M Togioka

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Brandon M Togioka, MD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Oregon Health and Science University

Locations

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Oregon Health and Science University

Portland, Oregon, United States

Site Status

Countries

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United States

References

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Hall WJ, Chapman MV, Lee KM, Merino YM, Thomas TW, Payne BK, Eng E, Day SH, Coyne-Beasley T. Implicit Racial/Ethnic Bias Among Health Care Professionals and Its Influence on Health Care Outcomes: A Systematic Review. Am J Public Health. 2015 Dec;105(12):e60-76. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2015.302903. Epub 2015 Oct 15.

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AAMC. Percentage of all active physicians by race/ethnicity, 2018. Association of American Medical Colleges. https://www.aamc.org/data-reports/workforce/interactive-data/figure-18-percentage-all-active-physicians-race/ethnicity-2018. Published 2019. Accessed April 6, 2020, 2020.

Reference Type BACKGROUND

AAMC. Underrepresented in Medicine Definition. Association of American Medical Colleges. https://www.aamc.org/what-we-do/mission-areas/diversity-inclusion/underrepresented-in-medicine. Published 2004. Accessed March 10, 2020, 2020.

Reference Type BACKGROUND

Hagiwara N, Slatcher RB, Eggly S, Penner LA. Physician Racial Bias and Word Use during Racially Discordant Medical Interactions. Health Commun. 2017 Apr;32(4):401-408. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2016.1138389. Epub 2016 Jun 16.

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PMID: 27309596 (View on PubMed)

Hagiwara N, Mezuk B, Elston Lafata J, Vrana SR, Fetters MD. Study protocol for investigating physician communication behaviours that link physician implicit racial bias and patient outcomes in Black patients with type 2 diabetes using an exploratory sequential mixed methods design. BMJ Open. 2018 Oct 18;8(10):e022623. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-022623.

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Blair IV, Steiner JF, Fairclough DL, Hanratty R, Price DW, Hirsh HK, Wright LA, Bronsert M, Karimkhani E, Magid DJ, Havranek EP. Clinicians' implicit ethnic/racial bias and perceptions of care among Black and Latino patients. Ann Fam Med. 2013 Jan-Feb;11(1):43-52. doi: 10.1370/afm.1442.

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Penner LA, Dovidio JF, Gonzalez R, Albrecht TL, Chapman R, Foster T, Harper FW, Hagiwara N, Hamel LM, Shields AF, Gadgeel S, Simon MS, Griggs JJ, Eggly S. The Effects of Oncologist Implicit Racial Bias in Racially Discordant Oncology Interactions. J Clin Oncol. 2016 Aug 20;34(24):2874-80. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2015.66.3658. Epub 2016 Jun 20.

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Maina IW, Belton TD, Ginzberg S, Singh A, Johnson TJ. A decade of studying implicit racial/ethnic bias in healthcare providers using the implicit association test. Soc Sci Med. 2018 Feb;199:219-229. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.05.009. Epub 2017 May 4.

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Schulman KA, Berlin JA, Harless W, Kerner JF, Sistrunk S, Gersh BJ, Dube R, Taleghani CK, Burke JE, Williams S, Eisenberg JM, Escarce JJ. The effect of race and sex on physicians' recommendations for cardiac catheterization. N Engl J Med. 1999 Feb 25;340(8):618-26. doi: 10.1056/NEJM199902253400806.

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Obeidat SS, Rakshe S, Fareh R, Norris K, Ye S, Zuo LW, Togioka BM. Impact of Unconscious Race Bias Among Anesthesia Providers on Nonverbal Communication During the Preoperative Anesthesia Consult: A Prospective, Observational Study. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2025 Aug 22. doi: 10.1007/s40615-025-02604-5. Online ahead of print.

Reference Type DERIVED
PMID: 40844570 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

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Study00022536

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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