Painpath: mapping the health care journey of people living with chronic musculoskeletal pain

Background and aims: Chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) account for 30% of all general practice consultations. The treatment pathways after the initial consultation are often heterogenous with multiple referrals, leaving the patients unsatisfied and impeding their ability to successfully manage their condition. There is a need for exploring the patients’ experiences with the healthcare system to optimize the patient trajectories. Patient Journey Mapping (PJM) is a method that can be used to map patients’ experiences with navigating the healthcare system. This information can be used to design treatment pathways that match patient’s needs. The aim of this study is to develop PJMs for patients living with CMP

Methods: This study will integrate findings from six to ten semi-structured interviews and two workshops to develop PJMs. First, we will create user personas to identify typical patient journeys, based on findings the semi-structured interviews. The patient journeys will be further developed in the workshops, each aiming to include six to ten patients with CMP. The workshop data will be analyzed thematically to inform the final development of the PJMs. Finally, the PJMs will be validated through four semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders.

Results: The final user personas will be described narratively and PJMs will be graphically presented. At the conference, we will present all patient journeys and the related user personas.

Conclusions: This study will develop PJMs for patients with CMP. We will provide important insights into the complex task of navigating the health care system and everyday self-management, while identifying relevant areas in need of optimizations.