Methods of Observing Variations in Physicians’ Decisions: The Opportunities of Clinical Vignettes

ABSTRACT To support their efforts to promote high quality and efficient care, policymakers need to better understand the key factors associated with variations in physicians’ decisions, and in particular, physician deviations from evidence-based care. Clinical vignette survey instruments hold potent...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of general internal medicine : JGIM 2015-08, Vol.30 (Suppl 3), p.586-594
Main Authors: Converse, Lara, Barrett, Kirsten, Rich, Eugene, Reschovsky, James
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Clinical Decision-Making - methods
Clinical medicine
Decision making
Evidence-based medicine
Evidence-Based Medicine - methods
Humans
Internal Medicine
Medical Records
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Physicians
Point-of-Care Systems
Practice Patterns, Physicians
Primary care
Quality of care
Review
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:ABSTRACT To support their efforts to promote high quality and efficient care, policymakers need to better understand the key factors associated with variations in physicians’ decisions, and in particular, physician deviations from evidence-based care. Clinical vignette survey instruments hold potential for research in this area as an approach that both allows for practical, large-scale study and overcomes the data quality challenges posed by analysis of clinical data. These surveys present respondents with a narrative description of a hypothetical patient case and solicit responses to one or more questions regarding the care of the patient. In this review, we describe various methods for measuring variations in physicians’ decisions and highlight a range of design features researchers should consider when developing a clinical vignette survey. We conclude by identifying areas for future research.
ISSN:0884-8734
1525-1497
DOI:10.1007/s11606-015-3365-8