Informed Decisions and Patient Outcomes: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Chronic Hip Pain

The clinical evaluation by the physician is standard-of-care and performed as part of potential participants' scheduled appointment. Participants in this study will complete a HIPAA authorization to allow data from their clinical evaluation by the physician to be utilized for this study, including any imaging the physician used in their clinical evaluation and the evaluation note entered into the participant's electronic health record. The physician notes are standardized, allowing streamlined data analysis from the electronic health record.

Research activities to occur the same day as the informed consent process include randomization to receive or not receive a clinical evaluation by a physical therapist along with surveys for treatment decisions, expected outcomes, and patient-reported function. A small sub-group of patients will also complete interviews to identify how they felt about their evaluation that day. The HIPAA authorization will also allow the data from the physical therapy evaluation and any subsequent posture and movement training at OSUWMC to be utilized for this study.

Regardless of randomization to receive or not receive a same-day physical therapy evaluation in the physician clinic, all participants will be randomized to receive posture and movement training (PMT) or undergo a 3-week wait period. Participants who are randomized to receive PMT as part of this research study will schedule based on their availability, twice weekly for 3 weeks with an OSUWMC Sports Medicine physical therapist who also hold IRB-approved status as research personnel. Participants will be made aware during the informed consent process that any PMT they receive as part of this study will be their responsibility to pay for using either self-pay or insurance-based methods.

Participants who refuse randomization to receive PMT will be offered to participate in the observational group. These participants proceed with the same baseline and follow-up testing, but continue with their treatment-of-choice rather than an assigned treatment during the 3-week intervention period.

All participants will complete baseline and follow-up biomechanical and clinical follow-up testing in the Motion Analysis and Performance Laboratory. Biomechanical testing involves using 3-dimensional motion capture techniques to analyze movement during 3 functional tasks including walking, sit-to-stand, and a forward tap-down. Clinical testing involves obtaining anthropometric measures, hip strength, patient-reported function, and planned treatment decisions with respective expected outcomes. A small sub-group of patients will also complete interviews at these testing sessions to identify how they feel about the intervention (wait or posture & movement training).