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Principal Investigator: Paul Smith, MD

PI Department:  Family Medicine

Summary of Study:  The project will develop an internet-based Vulvovaginal Atrophy (VVA) shared decision making (SDM) aid and educational interventions to teach SDM methods to clinicians. This will lead to increased recognition and management of symptomatic VVA in family medicine and OB/GYN clinics by raising awareness of patients, clinicians and office staff about the impact symptomatic VVA has on patient quality of life.

Objective: Increased clinician knowledge of SDM and current evidence for benefits and harms of treatments for VVA will result in: 1) Increased clinician knowledge about appropriate management of symptomatic VVA; 2) Change in clinician behavior to increase appropriate management of symptomatic VVA; 3) Increase diagnosis rates of symptomatic VVA in women age 50-80. 3) Improved Quality of Life (QOL) for women with symptomatic VVA as measured by the Menopause-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (MenQOL).

Study Design: Participating clinicians will be asked to complete a self-directed, educational activity on VVA and SDM followed by 4-6 meetings over 3 months with WREN staff to facilitate integration of identification of patients with VVA and VVA SDM into the practice workflows. Physicians will be asked to identify patients with symptomatic VVA to participate in the SDM process and refer to WREN staff for enrollment. Anticipated enrollment is two patients per month for each clinician for 6-12 months. Clinic staff will work with WREN staff to extract EHR billing data to assess frequency of VVA diagnosis before and after the educational intervention and create a list of patients for WREN staff to conduct chart reviews.

DFM Clinic(s):  Clinics choosing to participate

DFM Contact:  Paul Smith, MD

Study Contact Person:
Paul Smith, MD
paul.smith@fammed.wisc.edu
608-770-2022

Date of Approval:   4/2014