Ontario Printed Educational Message trial (OPEM): changing physician decision making towards more evidence based choices

ISRCTN	ISRCTN72772651
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN72772651
Secondary identifying numbers	MCT-67916

Submission date: 21/07/2005
Registration date: 21/07/2005
Last edited: 14/12/2021

Recruitment status: No longer recruiting
Overall study status: Completed
Condition category: Nutritional, Metabolic, Endocrine

Prospectively registered

Protocol

Statistical analysis plan

Results

Individual participant data

Plain English Summary

Not provided at time of registration

Contact information

Dr Merrick Flynn Zwarenstein
Scientific

Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences
2075 Bayview Ave
G106
Toronto, Ontario
M4N 3M5
Canada

Phone	+1 (0)416 480 4055 ext. 7439
Email	merrick.zwarenstein@ices.on.ca

Study information

Study design	Single-centre randomised cluster and factorial trial
Primary study design	Interventional
Secondary study design	Cluster randomised trial
Study setting(s)	GP practice
Study type	Other
Participant information sheet	Not available in web format, please use contact details to request a participant information sheet
Scientific title	Printed Educational Materials (PEMs) and their impact on physician decision making towards more evidence based choices: a single centre randomised tria
Study acronym	OPEM
Study hypothesis	Printed Educational Materials (PEMs) will change physician decision making towards more evidence based choices. Study Objective: To measure the impact of PEMs on physician behaviour. This description covers three replicates, independantly randomised. Each of the three sequential studies, aimed to asses the effects of printed educational materials on practice change by physicians. Each of the three replicates was aimed at a different condition and group of patients, and used different messages, but the same message formats. These three seperate trials, essentially identical in design, tested the impact of printed educational messages aimed at: 1. Increasing coverage of retinal screening among all adult patients with diabetes 2. Intensification of cardiovascular treatment for patients over 65 years of age, with diabetes, and 3. At encouraging physicians to choose thiazides for initiation of hypertension therapy in their patients over 65 years, with newly diagnosed uncomplicated hypertension.
Ethics approval(s)	Research Ethics Board of Sunnybrook & Women's College Health Science Centre, Toronto, Ontario (Canada), 29/04/2004, ref: #135-2004
Condition	Diabetes, hypertension
Intervention	Posted printed educational materials (PEM) as follows: Intervention arm 1 will receive 'informed' with an attached short outsert Intervention arm 2 will receive 'informed' with an attached short outsert and longer insert Intervention arm 3 will receive 'informed' with an attached long insert Control arm will receive 'informed' only with no attachments
Intervention type	Other
Primary outcome measure	Three trials: 1. Proportion of new hypertensives on diuretics 2. Proportion of diabetics who receive retinal screening 3. Proportion of diabetics who receive lipid lowering and antihypertensive medication and an ACE inhibitor All measured from routinely collected health insurance and administrative information: OHRI, ODB, CIHI
Secondary outcome measures	No secondary outcome measures
Overall study start date	01/01/2005
Overall study end date	01/07/2006

Eligibility

Participant type(s)	Patient
Age group	Adult
Sex	Both
Target number of participants	5547
Participant inclusion criteria	5547 actively practicing family (FP) and general practitioners (GP) in Ontario (~25 years and above, either sex) that have more than 100 patients over 65 years of age in fee for service practice with greater $50,000 billings to OHIP in 2003, randomised each time for three mail-outs of PEMs - the Printed Educational Materials
Participant exclusion criteria	Physicians who have elected not to receive 'informed', a newsletter on evidence based practice out of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES)
Recruitment start date	01/01/2005
Recruitment end date	01/07/2006

Locations

Countries of recruitment

Canada

Study participating centre

Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences

Toronto, Ontario
M4N 3M5
Canada

Sponsor information

Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences - Toronto (Canada)
Research organisation

Room G1 06
2075 Bayview Avenue
Toronto
M4N 3M5
Canada

Email	info@ices.on.ca
Website	http://www.ices.on.ca/
"ROR"	https://ror.org/05p6rhy72

Funders

Funder type

Research organisation

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) (Canada), ref: MCT-67916
Government organisation / National government

Alternative name(s): Instituts de Recherche en Santé du Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), CIHR_IRSC, Canadian Institutes of Health Research | Ottawa ON, CIHR, IRSC
Location: Canada

Results and Publications

Intention to publish date
Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to share	No
IPD sharing plan summary	Not provided at time of registration
Publication and dissemination plan	Not provided at time of registration
IPD sharing plan	Not provided at time of registration

Study outputs

Output type	Details	Date created	Date added	Peer reviewed?	Patient-facing?
Protocol article	process evaluation protocol	26/11/2007		Yes	No
Protocol article	protocol	26/11/2007		Yes	No
Protocol article	sub-trial protocol	26/11/2007		Yes	No
Results article	diabetic retinopathy results	06/08/2014		Yes	No
Results article	diabetic retinopathy results	06/08/2014		Yes	No
Results article	hypertension results	13/09/2016		Yes	No
Results article	hypertension results	17/09/2016		Yes	No
Results article		11/12/2021	14/12/2021	Yes	No

Editorial Notes

14/12/2021: Publication reference added.
19/09/2016: Publication reference added.
14/09/2016: Publication reference added.