Clinical Research Oriented Workshop (CROW) Meeting: Aug 25, 2010

Clinical Research Oriented Workshop (CROW) Meeting: Aug 25, 2010

Present: Abby Crocker, Rodger Kessler, Ben Littenberg, Charlie MacLean, Connie van Eeghen

1. Round Table: Next meeting starts our new schedule on Fridays:
a. Sept 3, 11:00 – 12:00
b. Followed by noon seminar, when scheduled

2. Connie’s Discussion: Qualitative assessment on answers to questions related to “Ease of Use” of QI processes

a. At our August 11 workshop, the group conducted a first trial of a qualitative assessment that concluded with the recognition that we needed the context of the questions that stimulated the utterances created during this case study. For a second trial, we decided to look at the utterances related to questions about the dependent variable “ease of use” by previewing a document with just these utterances ahead of time and creating themes separately.
b. At this workshop, we analyzed the major themes that came from these separate exercises; there were 35 non-unique themes and we grouped them into 8 unique themes:
i. Ease of Use – high
ii. Ease of Use – low
iii. Complex
iv. Process evaluation
v. Burdens
vi. QI process criteria
vii. Management role
viii. Culture
c. This analysis was done recognizing that the themes are completely dependent on the reviewers and the moment-of-review; a second review process might produce different results. (And, it is interesting to note similarities and differences in themes created by an independent reviewer, not present for this meeting: Protocol characteristics (the way the process of the project is organized), Leadership, Feedback, Engagement, Perceptions about the underlying conceptual model of QI, Perceptions of the outcome of QI, Resources.)
d. We discussed contradictory themes, and noted that the comments were mixed in that some were made about A3 and others were made about other QI processes prior to the A3 project
e. We disagreed about whether the headings we came up with were really about "ease of use." One of the reviewers found many of the comments not directly related to this variable and put them in a "not relevant" pile whereas others found tangential linkages that led to other headings.
f. We discussed a new approach: providing the group with the entire transcript - all the comments - and to ask for a "grounded theory" approach to creating themes. Assessments of what these say about dependent and independent variables will either come spontaneously from the reader or from a second stage of review not yet defined. To be continued at a later Workshop.

3. Next Fellows Meeting(s): Friday, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., at Given Courtyard Level 4
a. Sept 3 (NOTE: FRIDAY SCHEDULE STARTS): Abby will present her research topic
b. Sept 10: Connie and Qualitative Data Analysis, part 3
c. Sept 17: Rodger’s article on Behavior’s Influence on Medical Conditions (or the one on mixed methods)?
d. Sept 24:
e. Future agenda to consider:
i. Rodger: Mixed methods article
ii. Rodger: Unpublished article on the influence of behavior on medical conditions and function-and behavioral interventions with medical issues
iii. Future: Review of different types of journal articles (lit review, case study, original article, letter to editor…), when each is appropriate, tips on planning/writing (Abby)
iv. Future: Informed consent QI: Connie to follow up with Nancy Stalnaker, Alan Rubin will follow up with Alan Wortheimer or Rob McCauly
v. Kairn will ask a librarian to join us for selected issues

4. Fellows document – to be reviewed in the future. We trialed Wednesday meeting times, which started May 5, 2010 and continued until August 25, 2010. We returned to Friday meetings on Sept 3, 2010

Recorder: Connie van Eeghen