Building a transitional care checklist in rheumatology: A Delphi-like survey

tObjectives: To design a transitional care checklist to be used by and facilitate the work of health pro-fessionals in providing transitional care for children with a chronic rheumatologic disease and theirfamilies.Methods: A Delphi-like study among an international expert panel was carried out in four steps: (1)a working group of 6 specialists established a draft; (2) a web-survey among a panel of internationalexperts evaluated it; (3) a 2-day consensus conference with an expert panel discussed items not reachingagreement; (4) a web-survey among the panel of international experts with the list of reformulated items.Results: The first draft of the checklist included 38 items in 3 phases of transition and 5 age groups.Thirty-three international experts evaluated the checklist reaching ≥ 80% agreement for 26 items and≤ 80% for 12. The consensus conference of 12 experts discussed and redefined the 12 items. Twenty-five international experts filled out the web-survey and all items reached a minimum of 80% agreementexcept one. The final checklist was reached.Conclusions: This Delphi-like study defined what themes should be included and at what age they needto be addressed with patients with a chronic rheumatology disease and their families during transition.This checklist reached a strong international and interdisciplinary consensus while examining transitionin a broad way. It should now be spread widely to health professionals to be used by all those who carefor adolescents aged ≥ 12 years at times of transition. It could be transposed to most chronic conditions.Recommendations for further research are given