First impressions: UPFRONT’s first project site visits

The first visit to project sites is a good time to set the tone and engage with new (or old) colleagues. Professor Glyn Elwyn and I had the chance to travel across the US to discuss the beginning stages of this 3-year long project. Our main goals were to:
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• Introduce the project and answer any questions;
• Meet the research staff and possible clinician participants;
• Meet technology staff about putting the tool in the electronic health record; and
• Observe clinic flows to understand how operational processes will work.

Our first stop was just a few steps away from our offices here at Dartmouth. It was great to reconnect with Dr. Tina Foster (Site Principal Investigator) and her colleagues. Since their clinic is experienced with using a previous version of the uterine fibroids Option Grid, they seemed quite willing to engage with us in this new project.

Our next stop was in St. Louis, Missouri, where we got to experience our first midwest snowstorm. While the people of the city of St. Louis were scrambling to get home, the research team at WashU/BJH hunkered down with us to make a great first site visit. WashU/BJH has a well-running system for projects like these and we had good engagement from possible clinician participants. Thank you, Dr. Tessa Madden, Rachel, and Megan! It was a pleasure to meet all of you.

Marking the middle of our journey, Glyn and I traveled south to New York City to visit the team at Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Erika Banks had coordinated many stakeholders who were extremely welcoming and keen to take a leading role in integrating the Option Grid tools into their Epic system. I also got to experience the NYC Women’s March firsthand!

Back to the midwest, our second-to-last stop was in Rochester, Minnesota to meet our colleagues at Mayo Clinic. Our visit was very well-organized and we had a great time meeting a new Site Principal Investigator, Dr. Shannon Laughlin-Tommaso. Shannon has published many research articles in this area and works with a very experienced research team.

Our last stop was closer to home. We met Dr. Ray Anchan and the research team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. It was a sunny and warm day - everyone seemed to be in a very good mood because it was the New England Patriots Super Bowl parade! Glyn and I had the chance to engage with our new colleagues, and we enjoyed meeting a lot of potential clinician participants. The Boston group had a keen emphasis on preserving fertility - and we learned a lot about this perspective on how to deal with uterine fibroids.

Overall, one of the many things we learned is that electronic health record integration will be (surprisingly) feasible at each of the sites. We also were pleasantly impressed with the number of clinicians who seemed interested in participating in the project. We also received a lot of helpful feedback from everyone on the recent version of the Option Grid.

It was so great meeting all of you and engaging with you about this implementation project. Thank you to everyone who made these visits so smooth and enjoyable for us! We look forward to visiting again.