NCT03697213

The Surprise Study

An Online International Comparison of Thresholds for Triggering a Negative Response to the "Surprise Question"

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 250 (actual)
• Sponsor: University College, London · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study investigates the use of the Surprise Question \[SQ\] (would you be surprised if this patient were to die in the next 12 months?) in routine practice. In particular, the study will investigate the consistency of the responses to the SQ and the relationship with the subsequent course of action decided upon.

Detailed description

Whilst the original use of the Surprise Question was to identify people who might be in the last year of life and benefit from palliative care, the prognostic capability of the Surprise Question has been shown to be variable. What is unclear, is the extent to which a doctor should be "surprised" before a patient is suitable for palliative care, how consistently doctors respond to this question, and how the subsequent treatment decision relates to the SQ response. The study will recruit 600 General Practitioners (GPs) from 6 participating countries (100 per country; UK, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands). Each participant will asked to complete a series of 20 hypothetical patient summaries in an online task.

Conditions

• Palliative Care
• Terminal Illness

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Online study	20 hypothetical patient summaries

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-03-25
• Primary completion: 2020-03-01
• Completion: 2020-03-01
• First posted: 2018-10-05
• Last updated: 2020-03-27

Locations

6 sites across 6 countries: Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom