NCT05703230: PREPARATION

Is a Preoperative Multidisciplinary Team Meeting (Cost) Effective in Optimizing Noncardiac Surgical Patient Management: The PREPARATION Study

Active, enrolled NA Last updated 23 February 2026

What this trial tests

NA trial testing Structured preoperative multidisciplinary team meeting in Interdisciplinary Communication in 1,200 participants. Participants enrolled and being followed up; not accepting new ones.

Timeline

1 November 2022

Primary endpoint
31 December 2026

1 February 2027

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Rijnstate Hospital
Phase	NA
Status	Active, enrolled
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	sequential
Masking	none
Primary purpose	health services research
Enrollment	1,200
Start date	1 November 2022
Primary completion	31 December 2026
Estimated completion	1 February 2027
Sites	14 locations across Netherlands

Drugs / interventions tested

• Structured preoperative multidisciplinary team meeting

Conditions studied

• Interdisciplinary Communication — all drugs for Interdisciplinary Communication →
• Postoperative Complications — all drugs for Postoperative Complications →
• Noncardiac Surgery — all drugs for Noncardiac Surgery →
• Surgical Procedures, Operative — all drugs for Surgical Procedures, Operative →

Sponsor

Rijnstate Hospital

Who can join

18 and older, any sex, with Interdisciplinary Communication or Postoperative Complications. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

What's being measured

Primary outcomes are the specific endpoints the trial is designed to prove or disprove.

• Serious Adverse Events (SAEs)
  Time frame: 6 months
  Serious adverse events (SAEs), defined as: 1. Grade 3 or more on the Clavien Dindo classification following surgical intervention, or 2. non-operative SAEs will be graded accordingly i.e., events necessitating hospital admission, surgical intervention, single or multi-organ failure, or death.

Sponsor's own description

The current multicenter stepped wedge randomized cluster trial study aims to assess whether implementation of preoperative multidisciplinary team (MDT) discussions is (cost)effective for high risk noncardiac surgical patients.

The main questions to answer are:

* Primary question: Does implementation of preoperative multidisciplinary team discussions for high risk noncardiac surgical patients diminish serious adverse events as compared to care as usual at six months postoperatively or six months after multidisciplinary team discussion in case of nonsurgical treatment?
* Secondary questions: Does implementation of preoperative multidisciplinary team discussion for high risk noncardiac surgical patients improve disability, survival, functional outcome, quality of life and cost-effectiveness as compared to care as usual at six months postoperatively or six months after multidisciplinary team discussion in case of nonsurgical treatment?

Participants will be asked to answer questionnaires at baseline, 3, 6,9 and 12 months postoperatively or post MDT discussion.

Patients for whom no structured preoperative multidisciplinary discussion is installed yet (care as usual) will be compared with patients for whom a structured preoperative multidisciplinary discussion is performed (intervention).

The study will be performed in hospitals that have no established preoperative MDT meeting at the start of the study.

Publications & conference data

2 peer-reviewed publications reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):

1. Is a preoperative multidisciplinary team meeting (cost)effective to improve outcome for high-risk adult patients undergoing noncardiac surgery: the PREPARATION study-a multicenter stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial.
   Vernooij JEM, Boerlage RM, Doggen CJM, Preckel B, et al · · 2023 · cited 9× · PMID 37821994 · DOI 10.1186/s13063-023-07685-3
2. Characteristics and outcome of preoperative multidisciplinary team discussions for high-risk noncardiac surgical patients in the Netherlands: a multicentre prospective observational study.
   Vernooij JEM, Hobrink E, Boerlage RM, van Beest P, et al · · 2025 · cited 1× · PMID 40480911 · DOI 10.1016/j.bja.2025.05.004