Contact information
Type
Scientific
Primary contact
Prof Martin Eccles
ORCID ID
Contact details
Centre for Health Services Research
University of Newcastle Upon Tyne
21 Claremont Place
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE2 4AA
United Kingdom
+44 (0)191 222 6780
martin.eccles@ncl.ac.uk
Additional identifiers
EudraCT number
ClinicalTrials.gov number
Protocol/serial number
PSI B-9
Study information
Scientific title
Acronym
Study hypothesis
Our aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of two methods of changing general practitioners' radiology ordering behaviour as active strategies for implementing the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) guidelines. One of these (audit and feedback) is widely used alone and is of questionable effectiveness and the other (investigation specific prompts) is seldom used routinely but of unknown impact in combination with audit and feedback. The prior hypothesis was that either intervention alone would be more effective than the control intervention (a postal copy of the guidelines) and that both interventions together would be more effective than either alone.
Ethics approval
Not provided at time of registration
Study design
Randomised controlled trial
Primary study design
Interventional
Secondary study design
Randomised controlled trial
Trial setting
Hospitals
Trial type
Screening
Patient information sheet
Condition
Radiology referrals
Intervention
1. Control - postal paper copy of guidelines covering radiographs of the knee and lumbar spine
2. Intervention practices received in addition postal audit and feedback on use of the target investigations and investigation specific educational reminder messages about the relevant use of the investigation
Intervention type
Other
Phase
Not Specified
Drug names
Primary outcome measure
The main study outcome was the rate of ordering of x-rays measured over two 12 month periods, the second of which formed the intervention period.
Secondary outcome measures
Secondary outcomes were a costing study from the perspective of radiology departments and an assessment of the concordance of x-ray requests with criteria derived from guidelines.
Overall trial start date
01/10/1997
Overall trial end date
31/01/2000
Reason abandoned (if study stopped)
Eligibility
Participant inclusion criteria
The study was based in six radiology departments (in both district general and teaching hospitals) in the north east of England and Grampian region in Scotland. All 247 general practices, with the exception of one university practice, that were served entirely by these radiology departments were included in the study.
Participant type
Patient
Age group
Not Specified
Gender
Not Specified
Target number of participants
244
Participant exclusion criteria
Not provided at time of registration
Recruitment start date
01/10/1997
Recruitment end date
31/01/2000
Locations
Countries of recruitment
United Kingdom
Trial participating centre
Centre for Health Services Research
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE2 4AA
United Kingdom
Sponsor information
Organisation
Record Provided by the NHS R&D 'Time-Limited' National Programme Register - Department of Health (UK)
Sponsor details
The Department of Health
Richmond House
79 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2NL
United Kingdom
Sponsor type
Government
Website
Funders
Funder type
Government
Funder name
NHS Primary and Secondary Care Interface National Research and Development Programme (UK)
Alternative name(s)
Funding Body Type
Funding Body Subtype
Location
Results and Publications
Publication and dissemination plan
Not provided at time of registration
Intention to publish date
Participant level data
Not provided at time of registration
Basic results (scientific)
Publication list
Results:
1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11356439
2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12662955
Publication citations
-
Eccles M, Steen N, Grimshaw J, Thomas L, McNamee P, Soutter J, Wilsdon J, Matowe L, Needham G, Gilbert F, Bond S, Effect of audit and feedback, and reminder messages on primary-care radiology referrals: a randomised trial., Lancet, 2001, 357, 9266, 1406-1409, doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(00)04564-5.
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Ramsay CR, Eccles M, Grimshaw JM, Steen N, Assessing the long-term effect of educational reminder messages on primary care radiology referrals., Clin Radiol, 2003, 58, 4, 319-321.