The Failure

Devise an intervention and gradually have to conclude that patients do not show up. That happened to researcher Annemerle Beerthuizen of the Medical Psychology section & Psychotherapy at Erasmus MC Rotterdam. She studied the effect of an intervention for patients with hepatitis C. In seven group sessions they learn to deal with their illness and improve their quality of life.
A multicenter study would investigate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness in 300 patients, for which sixteen hospitals were approached. Finally did 37 patients in six hospitals along, only three of whom completed the training. Although patients and trainers were satisfied with the training and the cost was low, the study could only be called disappointing.

The lessons

The turnover of trainers within the hospitals was high and hepatitis C was not the most important problem for all participants; a heavier or different intervention might have been more appropriate. The physical complaints of a patient should also be taken more into account; the effort a tired patient must make to go to a workout seven times was underestimated. Furthermore, promoting adherence to therapy should be a task of the trainer. Beerthuizen also questions the feasibility of scientific research that is started simultaneously in various centers. That means (on)equal amount of energy for the implementation of the research in various places. Starting research in one center seems a better option. Finally, it must be prevented that various scientific studies compete for the same patients.

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