Practice Guidelines Grading Systems

Decision Making Clinical Trial

Official title: Different Grading Systems to Grade Evidence and Recommendations in Clinical Practice Guidelines: Does it Influence the Clinicians´ Behavior?

Status Completed

Clinical Trial Summary

Clinical practice guidelines (CPG) are systematically developed statements to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate health care for specific clinical circumstances. They are developed to give a recommendation based on the best evidence available. Through a randomized trial, the investigators intend to provide information about which of the four grading systems most used today to grade evidence and recommendations in CPGs, could change physician´s behavior towards a common clinical situation in daily practice.

Clinical Trial Description

Clinical practice guidelines (CPG) are used by professional and consumer organizations who are demanding more rigorous processes to ensure that health decisions are well informed by the best available research evidence. More than 60 different grading systems are used today to grade evidence and recommendations in CPGs. The investigators aimed to provide information about which of the four most common grading systems used today (GRADE, SIGN, NICE and CEBM-Oxford) could change physician´s behavior when reading a clinical recommendation in a CPG. The investigators will randomize 216 pediatricians and pediatricians in training into four groups (one for each grading system) to read a clinical case and to make a decision before reading the CPG statement graded with any of the four grading systems. After that they will re-consider their answer and post a new one based on the graded recommendation. The investigators will measure change in their decision and among groups. ;

Study Design

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

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Decision Making

• NCT number: NCT00940290
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterey
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: August 2009
• Completion date: November 2009