Engaging physicians in improved cause of death certification: evaluation of an education intervention

Abstract Background Accurate cause of death (CoD) data is one of the most important public health datasets that informs burden of disease assessments. Clinicians lack understanding of the nature of public health utilisation of CoD information. Furthermore, medical schools do not provide sufficient g...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Lancet (British edition) 2013-06, Vol.381 (S2), p.S122-S122
Main Authors: Rampatige, Rasika, MD, Wainiqolo, Iris, MPH, Singh, Sheetal, MPH, Riley, Ian, Prof
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
burden of disease
Certification
curriculum
data collection
death
Education
health information
Health policy
information systems
Internal Medicine
Intervention
Medical personnel
Mortality
physicians
Public health
Schools
students
Training
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Summary:Abstract Background Accurate cause of death (CoD) data is one of the most important public health datasets that informs burden of disease assessments. Clinicians lack understanding of the nature of public health utilisation of CoD information. Furthermore, medical schools do not provide sufficient guidance to their students on correct death certification practices. The aim of this paper is to present the results of an education intervention designed to educate doctors on correct death certification. Methods We developed a training curriculum, a handbook, and a set of teaching aids to train doctors in correct death certification practice. We used these materials in interactive workshops with 38 doctors in Fiji. The impact of the training was evaluated by pre-intervention and post-intervention tests using a vignette approach. It was also evaluated by assessing accuracy of death certification by these doctors 5 months after the workshops. Findings The findings suggested that the percentage of correctly entered death certificates increased from 33·3% (65 of 195) in pre-intervention to 69·2% (132 of 195) in post-intervention (p
ISSN:0140-6736
1474-547X
DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61376-8