A Randomized Trial Comparing "Push" Versus "Pull" Technology for Mobilizing Pain Evidence Into Practice Across Different Health Professions

NCT01348802 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: CIHR-228972
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 675
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Pain is a problem for many Canadians. Unfortunately, many doctors, nurses, therapists, and psychologists have trouble keeping up to date and applying the latest research that might help patients suffering with pain. This study will determine whether sending alerts about new pain research directly to these health professionals, and providing them with access to accumulated alerts, will help. The study will compare knowledge and decisions made by health professionals about managing pain problems. The investigators will compare physicians, nurses, rehab therapists and psychologists at the beginning of the study and after having access to different ways to find out about new pain research. One group will receive alerts about new pain studies that have been found to be high quality and relevant to patient care, and will be able to search the alerts database. The other group will be able to find the same studies,but must go to the database of research studies to locate them. The investigators will include 670 doctors, nurses, rehab therapists, and psychologists in this study. A process like tossing a coin will determine which way they are able to get pain research information. The investigators will monitor how much information they access and how they apply it to managing pain problems. The investigators expect that reminding health care providers about new research findings directly will help them, since difficulty finding studies and lack of time prevent them from using the latest research. The investigators expect that reminders about the latest research will help them make better decisions about caring for patients' pain.

Conditions

Pain

Keywords

Knowledge Translation; Push-out Evidence; Technology-Based Knowledge Translation; Pain; Interdisciplinary; Physician; Rehabilitation; Nursing; Knowledge Uptake

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Application of evidence (chart-stimulated recall)

  A random subset of 30 participants/discipline will undergo chart-stimulated recall to assess the nature and depth of evidence utilization in actual case management.

  0, 9 months

• Skill at accessing research evidence

  A different random subset of 30 participants/discipline will be tested for their skills in accessing evidence using a standardized simulation test.

  15 months

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• Usage of PainPLUS

  Every month

• Attitudes about Evidence-Based Practice Questionnaire

  0, 3, 9, 15, and 18 months

• Familiarity/Access to Technology

  0 months

Study Arms (2)

Push + Pull

EXPERIMENTAL

Push + Pull is evidence on pain that is extracted from medical, nursing, psychology and rehabilitation journals, appraised for quality and relevance, and delivered to clinicians by e-mail alerts or available for searches of the accumulated database.

Behavioral: Push + Pull

Pull

PLACEBO COMPARATOR

Pull will be an intervention with a similar front-face but requires clinicians to go to the site and extract evidence from an electronic database.

Behavioral: Pull

Interventions

Push + Pull BEHAVIORAL

Push + Pull is evidence on pain that is extracted from medical, nursing, psychology and rehabilitation journals, appraised for quality and relevance, and delivered to clinicians by e-mail alerts or available for searches of the accumulated database.

Push + Pull

Pull BEHAVIORAL

Pull will be an intervention with a similar front-face but requires clinicians to go to the site and extract evidence from an electronic database.

Pull

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• licensed physicians, nurses, occupational therapists (OT), physical therapists (PT), or psychologists who see patients at least 1 day/week;
• fluent in English;
• have access to a computer at home or at work which has unrestricted access to the World Wide Web,
• have an active email account

You may not qualify if:

• currently participating in other knowledge translation interventions

Sponsors & Collaborators

• McMaster University: lead
• Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR): collaborator

Study Sites (1)

McMaster University

Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 1C7, Canada

Location

Related Publications (2)

• MacDermid JC, Law M, Buckley N, Haynes RB. "Push" versus "Pull" for mobilizing pain evidence into practice across different health professions: a protocol for a randomized trial. Implement Sci. 2012 Nov 24;7:115. doi: 10.1186/1748-5908-7-115.

  PMID: 23176444 BACKGROUND

• Arumugam V, MacDermid JC, Walton D, Grewal R. The yield and usefulness of PAIN+ and PubMed databases for accessing research evidence on pain management: a randomized crossover trial. Arch Physiother. 2021 Apr 1;11(1):9. doi: 10.1186/s40945-021-00100-7.

  PMID: 33789739 DERIVED

Related Links

• Protocol published in Implementation Science

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Pain

Interventions

Double-Balloon Enteroscopy

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Neurologic Manifestations; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Balloon Enteroscopy; Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal; Endoscopy, Digestive System; Diagnostic Techniques, Digestive System; Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures; Diagnosis; Endoscopy; Diagnostic Techniques, Surgical; Digestive System Surgical Procedures; Surgical Procedures, Operative; Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures

Study Officials

• Joy MacDermid, PhD

  McMaster University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: INVESTIGATOR, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
• Intervention Model: CROSSOVER
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 4, 2011
• First Posted: May 5, 2011
• Study Start: August 1, 2011
• Primary Completion: December 1, 2014
• Study Completion: March 1, 2015
• Last Updated: September 23, 2015

Record last verified: 2015-09

Locations

CA (1)