Cycle 1
erectile dysfunction
MALE SEXUAL DYSFUNCTION, SECONDARY, ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION, MEDICATION SIDE EFFECTS
A crossfunctional team of technical leads and quality and safety staff collaborated to design a simple data collection tool that would be sent to new patients 14 days after initiating treatment. The intervention, referred to as an Rx Check-In (RxCI), was a short questionnaire that collected information from patients on treatment satisfaction and side effects. The RxCI additionally gauged patient interest in adjusting their medication to alleviate side effects and/or achieve greater medication efficacy. Information from patients requiring follow-up was automatically sent to providers so they could offer the necessary counseling and/or medication adjustment required. Those who did not require follow-up were also given the option to directly message their provider with any additional information via a chat interface. The purpose of the intervention was multifaceted: first, it was designed to facilitate better communication between patients and providers in the early stages of treatment. The intention was that better communication would lead to appropriate counseling and/or medication adjustment before patients abandoned treatment due to side effects or concerns around efficacy. A secondary purpose of the intervention was to facilitate systematic, structured data collection on rates of medication side effects that could be analyzed at the population level. A visual depiction of the full questionnaire is included in the Additional file After the data collection tool was created, we decided to pilot the implementation of the tool with patients receiving treatment for erectile dysfunction (ED), a common male sexual dysfunction estimated to have affected more than 30 million American men [