Study population
MAAUI is a province-wide population-based study. All primary care physicians (non-specialists) registered with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba and practicing in Manitoba since July 1995 were eligible to enter MAAUI. The study excluded residents, new physician graduates, physicians registered as specialists, and physicians who started practicing in the province of Manitoba after July 1995. The eligible study population thus totalled approximately 884 physicians.
All eligible physicians were automatically entered into the MAAUI protocol. Physicians who were randomized to intervention group of the research were given the option to withdraw from the study. Six family physicians who agreed to act as facilitators for the MAAUI CME workshop were not included in the study population.
Study design
The MAAUI study design is depicted in Figure 1. Primary care physicians were allocated to the control and intervention arms of the study using a stratified randomization process. Specifically, study participants were divided into groups according to the geographical area of their practice within Manitoba. These groups were stratified by physicians' "urban" (within Winnipeg – the provincial capital, population size 676,700) or "rural" (outside of Winnipeg, population size 468,300) practice location. Randomization within each stratum was then carried out at the level of the group. The MAAUI research team originally identified 12 urban and 11 rural areas in Manitoba based on existing community boundaries within Winnipeg and the presence of distinct regional health districts outside of Winnipeg. Because one urban and rural area each contained very few primary care physicians (less than five), these areas were joined to neighbouring regions resulting in 11 urban and 10 rural groups. Urban and rural groups were randomized in such a way as to achieve a 1:2 ratio of control to intervention groups. Four of the urban groups and three of the rural groups were randomized to the control arm, and the remaining seven urban and seven rural groups were randomized to the intervention arm.
This study design was chosen for several reasons. First, it offered the scientific rigour that is associated with randomization and the use of a control group. It also ensured that both rural and urban Manitoban physician groups had an equal opportunity to take part in and learn from the study intervention. The study design was also particularly amenable to testing an intervention that required physicians to congregate in common locations (i.e. for the CME workshop). The 1:2 ratio of study groups helped to ensure that there were a sufficient number of study participants who would consider attending the CME workshops.
The educational intervention
Physicians allocated to the intervention arm of MAAUI were mailed a package that included an introduction to the study, audit and feedback material, and an invitation to participate in a CME workshop. Physicians in the control arm received no package.
Audit and feedback material
The audit and feedback material consisted of a "Personalised Prescribing Profile" (see Figure 2). This profile illustrated for each physician his/her recent prescribing pattern of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory therapies and the appropriateness of this prescribing pattern in light of expert recommendations. Specifically, the profile contained a bar chart showing the number of patients to whom the physician had prescribed long-term treatment with coxibs, traditional NSAID monotherapy, or traditional NSAIDs in combination with GPAs between August 1999 and September 2000. The proportion of these patients with whom the prescription was appropriate was also included. Long-term treatment was defined as patients who received therapy for a minimum of 100 days during this period. The chart, in addition to showing the physician's own prescribing profile, also showed the average profile of primary care physicians in the same geographical area and the profile of Manitoban primary care physicians overall. The reverse side of the chart listed the criteria used to define appropriate prescribing. These criteria were based on international clinical practice guidelines and Manitoba's restricted drug reimbursement policy for coxibs, and were verified by a rheumatologist on the MAAUI research team [18–22]. The criteria identified coxibs or traditional NSAID/GPA combination therapy as the appropriate choice for patients at risk for serious GI complications. The criteria also identified coxibs as the only appropriate therapy for patients with bleeding disorders or patients taking concomitant anticoagulants (this latter recommendation was based in part on Manitoba's reimbursement policy for coxibs and in part on the Canadian Consensus guidelines, and reflected concerns over the anti-platelet effect of traditional NSAIDs [18, 22]). The format of the Personalised Prescribing Profiles was developed by the MAAUI research team and was validated prior to the study intervention using two focus groups of family physicians.
The Personalized Prescribing Profiles were generated by Manitoba Health and the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP) at the University of Manitoba, using administrative data from the Population Health Research Data Repository. This repository contains anonymized encounter-based records of individuals' interactions with the provincial health care system and is derived from information received by the Department of Health, Province of Manitoba, as part of the routine provision of health care in the province. The repository includes Physician Registry files, Medical Claims and Hospital discharge files, as well as Drug Programs Information Network (DPIN) files. The DPIN contains records of all drugs dispensed by Manitoba pharmacies, regardless of who is responsible for payment.
Because of the sensitive nature of the Personalised Prescribing Profiles, the individualized profiles were not seen by the MAAUI research team. Instead the packages containing the profiles were assembled and mailed out by Manitoba Health with the assistance of an independent researcher, hired by the MAAUI research team, who signed a confidentiality agreement with Manitoba Health.
CME workshop
The CME workshop for MAAUI was entitled "The Utilization and Prescribing of Anti-inflammatory Drugs in Osteoarthritis". The workshop focused specifically on the prescribing for osteoarthritis, as it was felt that people with this disease account for a large proportion of the chronic non-steroidal anti-inflammatory use by primary care practices [39].
Eleven CME workshops were held throughout Manitoba (four within Winnipeg and seven outside of Winnipeg) and physicians in the intervention group were invited to voluntarily attend one of the 11. The workshops were free of charge and were approved for 3.0 hours of MAINPRO-M1 credits (continuing education credits awarded by the College of Family Physicians of Canada for group learning activities). Each workshop was facilitated by a trained family physician.
The workshops included three components: an introductory video, a decision tree, and a case study portion. The introductory video provided the history and rationale of MAAUI, explained aspects of the Personalised Prescribing Profile, and introduced the decision tree. The decision tree depicted a stepwise approach to the diagnosis and treatment of osteoarthritis. This aid was designed by a rheumatologist on the MAAUI research team specifically for use in the study and was based on international clinical practice guidelines and Manitoba's drug reimbursement policy [18–22]. A take-home copy of the decision tree was provided to each workshop participant (see Additional file 1). Finally, the case study portion of the workshop consisted of studies exploring both the diagnosis and appropriate treatment of osteoarthritis. These case studies were supplied from an existing CME curriculum entitled "Clinical Scenarios in Osteoarthritis" [40].
The overall MAAUI educational intervention, including both the audit and feedback material and the optional CME interactive workshop, was chosen by the MAAUI research team based on the success of similar interventions in the past. Audit and feedback mechanisms have shown moderate success in changing physician behaviour in past studies [41]. Equally, the addition of a continuing education workshop to an existing intervention has been shown to increase the impact on physician behaviour [42]. Workshops with interactive elements, such as case studies, have also been found to be more successful at influencing physician behaviour than purely didactic lectures [43]. Affordability, practicality, and reproducibility were also considered when designing the intervention.
Outcomes
Principal outcomes
The primary goal of MAAUI is to evaluate the impact of the educational intervention on physician appropriate prescribing of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory therapies for patients requiring long-term treatment. To this end, four principal outcome measures have been developed:
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the change in appropriate prescribing of all non-steroidal anti-inflammatory therapy (including coxibs, traditional NSAIDs, and traditional NSAID/GPA combination therapy) from pre-to post-intervention;
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the change in appropriate prescribing of coxibs from pre-to post-intervention;
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the change in appropriate prescribing of traditional NSAID/GPA combination therapy from pre-to post-intervention; and
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the change in appropriate prescribing of traditional NSAID monotherapy from pre-to post-intervention.
These primary outcomes will be evaluated at the level of the individual physician and will be calculated using administrative data similar to that used to create the Personalised Prescribing Profiles. The change in appropriate prescribing (AP) for a given physician will be calculated by the physician's rate of appropriate prescribing during a 6-month period post-intervention (October 1st 2001 to March 31st 2002) minus this rate during a 10-month period immediately pre-intervention (October 1st, 2000 to July 31st, 2001). The rate of appropriate prescribing will be defined as the number of patients prescribed long-term treatment in whom the treatment was appropriate, divided by the total number of patients prescribed long-term treatment, multiplied by 100%. Otherwise expressed:
Physician's ΔAP = Post-intervention AP - Pre-intervention AP
Appropriateness of prescribing will be calculated by a researcher who is blinded to participants' study-arm allocation, and will be based on the same criteria as listed in the Personalised Prescribing Profiles (see Figure 2a). In the event that a physician has fewer than five patients on long-term treatment in either the pre- or post-intervention period, that physician's data will be withheld from analysis to ensure confidentiality of the patients.
Secondary outcomes
In addition to the four principal outcomes, the MAAUI study has a number of prospectively-defined secondary outcomes:
Specifically in the subgroup of physicians who attended the CME workshop:
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The study will measure the change in physician knowledge of osteoarthritis from pre-CME workshop to immediately post-CME workshop and the change in knowledge from pre-CME workshop to five months post-CME workshop. These two outcomes should provide insight into physicians' retention of information following a CME workshop and will allow us to examine any relationship between change in physician knowledge and change in physician prescribing behaviour.
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The study will also survey physicians' perceived change in prescribing behaviour at five months post-intervention. This outcome, compared with the principal study outcomes, will provide insight into the accuracy with which physicians' discern their own prescribing practices.
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The study will collect process-related measures in order to mark areas for improvement in the study interventions. Specifically, physicians' impressions of the Personalised Prescribing Profile and CME workshop will be surveyed using the questionnaire distributed immediately following the CME workshop and using focus-group discussions at the end of the study follow-up. All workshop participants will be invited to attend a follow-up focus group (one for urban participants and one for rural participants). A separate focus group will be held for the workshop facilitators.
Baseline data collection
The following data were collected at baseline (October 1st, 2000 to July 31st, 2001) as control measurements: i) physician demographics including sex, urban or rural practice location, and the number of years in practice; ii) physician volume of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory therapies prescribed annually for patients requiring chronic therapy; and iii) physician rate of appropriate prescribing of NSAIDs. These latter two measures were assessed for each of coxibs, traditional NSAID/GPA combination therapy, and traditional NSAID monotherapy.
Sample size and statistics
Sample size was calculated based on the need to detect at least a 10% improvement in physician practice patterns associated with the intervention, for clinical significance. Alpha error was set at 1% because of the multiple primary outcomes and power was set at 80%. It was also assumed in the sample size calculation that physician baseline demographic measures and baseline practice patterns would contribute an additional 10% variation to the outcomes. Based on these figures and using sample size techniques for multivariate regression analysis [44], we estimated the need for a minimum of 116 physicians in the control group and intervention group respectively.
Multivariate regression analysis will be used to determine if the study intervention has a significant impact on the primary outcomes. Baseline data will be included as control measures and interaction effects between these baseline data and the intervention will also be evaluated.
Ethics
The MAAUI protocol has been approved by the Health Research Ethics Board, Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, and by the Health Information Privacy Committee of Manitoba Health which is responsible for approving research projects that use personal health information held by a government department.
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