title: Treatment goal setting for complex patients: protocol for a scoping review.
abstract: An increasing number of people are living longer with multiple health and social care needs, and may rely heavily on health system resources. When dealing with multiple conditions, patients, caregivers and healthcare providers (HCPs) often experience high treatment burden due to unclear care trajectories, a myriad of treatment decisions and few guidelines on how to manage care needs. By understanding patient and caregiver priorities, and setting treatment goals, HCPs may help improve patient outcomes and experiences. This study aims to examine the extent and nature of the literature on treatment goal setting in complex patients, identify gaps in evidence and areas for further inquiry and guide a research programme to develop definitions, measures and recommendations for treatment goal setting.
  
  
  
  This study protocol outlines a scoping review of the peer reviewed and the grey literature, using established scoping review methodology. Literature will be identified using a multidatabase and grey literature search strategy developed by two librarians. Papers and reports on the topic of goal setting that address complexity or complex patients will be included. Results of the search will be screened independently by two reviewers and included studies will be abstracted and charted in duplicate.
  
  
  
  Ethics approval is not required for this scoping review. Working with the knowledge users on the team, we will prepare educational materials and presentations to disseminate study findings to HCPs, caregivers and patients, and at relevant national and international conferences. Results will also be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
authors.affiliation: Collaboratory for Research and Innovation, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Agnes
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grudniewicz
authors.affiliation: Collaboratory for Research and Innovation, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: Collaboratory for Research and Innovation, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Kerry
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kuluski
authors.affiliation: Gerstein Science Information Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Vincci
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lui
authors.affiliation: Gerstein Science Information Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Heather V
authors.initials: HV
authors.lastname: Cunningham
authors.affiliation: Collaboratory for Research and Innovation, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: X Nie
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Colquhoun
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Walter P
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Wodchis
authors.affiliation: Health Quality Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.affiliation: Sinai Health System, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Mayura
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Loganathan
authors.affiliation: Collaboratory for Research and Innovation, Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Ross E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Upshur
mesh_terms: D017028:Caregivers; D015897:Comorbidity; D006801:Humans; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D057240:Patient Preference; D012107:Research Design; D000098584:Scoping Reviews as Topic
keywords: comorbidity; complex patients; goal setting; multimorbidity; scoping review; synthesis