Match between treatment and goals
Nearly all patients described having one of two goals for the ablation: symptom treatment and antiarrhythmic medication discontinuation. Clinicians agreed these were the two most common goals. Many patients described wanting “to get back to my normal life, doing what I was doing.” -Patient 1. Most patients and clinicians agreed ablations helped them achieve these goals most of the time, although medication discontinuation post-ablation was often more nuanced and unpredictable than patients appreciated. One patient stated: “I’m not real big on pill taking. It is one of the reasons why I got the ablation done. But, that didn’t happen. He said we’ll see what happens, especially with the blood thinner. I’m still on that two times a day.” -Patient 6.