Interviewee, Health Technology Assessment – MitraClip for Percutaneous Mitral Valve Repair

Can your voice speak to health care experiences with valve disease? If yes, consider this opportunity to work with the Health Technology Assessment Team to inform treatment choices in BC for those with certain types of heart disease.

Open to: Patient partners across the province

Lead Organization or Department

Health Technology Assessment Team - Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation, UBC

Aim

The Health Technology Review (HTR) is a joint Ministry of Health and Health Authority process used to provide evidence-informed recommendations about which new non-drug health technologies (tools, devices, diagnostics, and procedures) should be publicly provided in the province A decision was made to look at the costs and benefits of increasing access to MitraClip, a minimally invasive surgical technique for repair of the mitral heart valve in people suffering cardiac disease, specifically functional mitral regurgitation (FMR). The purpose for engaging patients is to gain a fuller understanding of the outcomes that are important to patients, alongside their perceptions and experiences of the treatments available for diseases of the heart valve such as FMR. This knowledge will contribute to evaluation of the clinical literature and current health procedure funding policies

Level of Engagement

This opportunity is at the level of consult on the spectrum of engagement. The promise to you is that the health care partner will listen to and acknowledge your ideas and concerns, and provide feedback on how your input affected the decision.

Eligibility

Open to patient partners across the province who are: • A resident of BC • Older than 19 years of age • Have experience of heart disease and/or valve replacement or repair surgery within the last 18 months • Comfortable sharing health care experiences • Able to participate in a telephone or online interview (e.g. Skype or Zoom) If you have a strong interest in this work but have not yet completed a PVN orientation and volunteer agreement, are unsure if your experience is a good fit or feel another format of engagement would work better with your availability, please contact the engagement leader directly.

Logistics

• Vacancies: 3-5 • Date and Time: Interviews will take place until August 14, 2020 at a time that is convenient for the patient partner • Location: Teleconference or online interview • Commitment: One time

Reimbursement

No costs are anticipated.

Background

The Health Technology Review (HTR) is a joint Ministry of Health and Health Authority process used to provide evidence-informed recommendations about which new non-drug health technologies (tools, devices, diagnostics, and procedures) should be publicly provided in BC. An assessment of the MitraClip technology for functional mitral regurgitation, or FMR, which is a form of heart valve disease. Specifically, patients with FMR have left ventricular dysfunction resulting from coronary artery disease or idiopathic myocardial disease. This procedure is currently available in BC only at St Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver; an average of 24 procedures per year can be conducted and the waiting time for surgery is around 8 months. The Health Technology Assessment team is very interested in hearing about the patients’ experience with FMR and its treatment in regards to factors such as quality of life, treatment results, recovery and any side-effects of treatments direct and indirect costs (e.g., travel, loss of worktime) and in general their experiences, family and caregiver interactions, or any other factors related to the patient experience. We are especially interested in hearing from patients who may have recently undergone minimally invasive procedures such as FMR for heart valve repair, and how this may have impacted their experiences with symptoms and quality of life. We want to hear from patients from all regions within BC. We are also interested in the experience of those who may have been eligible for such surgery but chose not to receive the treatment. There is no risk to the patient volunteer. All information provided is confidential and will only be reported in the aggregate. Patient partners will be told the following statement by the facilitator at the beginning of the interview: This session will not be recorded. The information in the report will be anonymized with no personally identifiable information included and written down in a summary fashion. The Ministry of Health is collecting your personal information under section 26 (c) of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. It will be used to generate a report based on the discussions today. Please do not provide any third party information (i.e. talk about others) in your responses to this discussion. Once the report has been completed any personal information collected will be destroyed. If you have any questions about the collection of your personal information please contact Sandie Du, Policy Analyst, Health Technology Review at 778.698.9947, PO BOX 9637 STN PROV GOVT. Those interested in learning more about this project or the HTR process are invited to visit the web page: www.health.gov.bc.ca/htr and/or email the HTR Office: HTR.Office@gov.bc.ca.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Cassy Mitchell
Engagement Leader, Patient and Public Engagement | Provincial
250.279.0717
cmitchell@bcpsqc.ca