The Visualization of Uncertainty in Clinical Diagnostic Reasoning for Pulmonary Embolism

Pulmonary Embolism Clinical Trial

Official title:

The Visualization of Uncertainty in Clinical Diagnostic Reasoning for Pulmonary Embolism: a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT01752673
• Other study ID #: 23231
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: December 12, 2012
• Last updated: December 14, 2012
• Start date: March 2011
• Est. completion date: October 2011

Study information

• Verified date: December 2012
• Source: University of Calgary
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: Canada: Ethics Review Committee
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Medical reasoning is a form of inquiry that examines the thought processes involved in making medical decisions. When physicians are faced with patients' symptoms or signs, their thought processes follow either direct shortcuts to suspect a diagnosis or go into a deeper and more analytic process to reach a diagnosis. The second pathway is less prone to biases and errors. This study explores whether the use of an interactive visual display of probabilities of pulmonary embolism generated from positive or negative test results will increase the adherence to evidence based guidelines in the diagnosis of pulmonary embolism.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 30
• Est. completion date: October 2011
• Est. primary completion date: October 2011
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 24 Years to 65 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Medical students, University of Calgary, in clerkship who finished at least 4 weeks of a block of medicine rotation at any hospital site.

• First year subspecialty or Internal Medicine residents.

• Practicing physicians in the subspecialties of Internal Medicine or Emergency Medicine.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Physicians in the subspecialty of Haematology or Respiratory

Study Design

Allocation: Randomized, Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment, Masking: Open Label

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Clinical Reasoning
• Diagnostic Uncertainty
• Embolism
• Evidence Based Medicine
• Pulmonary Embolism
• Visualization of Uncertainty

Intervention

Other:
• Visualized pulmonary embolism computer task model
This group of participants was presented and trained to use a visual representation of diagnostic pathway for pulmonary embolism. The design of this visual representation is based on Bayes theorem and cognition enhancing visual design principles.
• Didactic review lecture
This group of participants was presented with a didactic lecture covering the diagnostic approach of pulmonary embolism.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Canada	University of Calgary	Calgary	Alberta

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Calgary

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Canada, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Other	Survey.	The participants' responses to the satisfaction survey will provide feedback about the need for improvement or modification in interface of software	Survey was completed within 2 hours after completion of either intervention.	No
Primary	Concordance with medical diagnostic reasoning pathway for pulmonary embolism.	Concordance with medical diagnostic reasoning pathway for a case presentation suggestive of pulmonary embolism will be reflected by whether participants are stopping prematurely or proceeding with diagnostic steps inappropriately.	Paper-based clinical case scenarios were completed within 2 hour after either intervention.	No
Secondary	Time.	The overall time taken to solve each clinical scenario may give insight to which decision making process was predominant to solve each clinical scenario.	Paper-based clinical case scenarios were completed within 2 hour after either intervention.	No