Key components influencing the sustainability of a multi-professional obstetric emergencies training programme in a middle-income setting: a qualitative study.

Background: Multi-professional obstetric emergencies training is one promising strategy to improve maternity care. Sustaining training programmes following successful implementation remains a challenge. Understanding, and incorporating, key components within the implementation process can embed interventions within healthcare systems, thereby enhancing sustainability.

Guidance was developed on how to write a plain language summary for diagnostic test accuracy reviews.

Objective: To develop guidance for authors of diagnostic test accuracy (DTA) reviews to help them write a plain language summary of the results of their review.

Study Design And Setting: We used a combination of focus groups, user testing, and a web-based survey. Participants included patient representatives, media representatives, and health professionals.

Experiencing menopause in the UK: The interrelated narratives of normality, distress, and transformation.

We investigated the experience and perspectives of menopause among 48 UK mothers through qualitative in-depth interviews. Interviews were analyzed thematically then explored using social science theories. Three interdependent narratives emerged: menopause as a normal, biological process, distinct from self and social transitions; menopause as struggle, an "idiom of distress" expressing upset, identity loss, shame, and social upheaval; and menopause as transformative and liberating, arising from biopsychic and relational changes.

What do tests do for doctors? A qualitative study of blood testing in UK primary care.

Background: Rates of blood testing are rising with significant geographical variability. Most research into diagnostic testing focuses on the role of tests in diagnostic decision-making.

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the non-medical motives for blood testing by considering what tests do for doctors, through qualitative interviews with general practitioners (GPs).

Erratum to: Methods for evaluating medical tests and biomarkers.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s41512-016-0001-y.].

'I'm fishing really'--inflammatory marker testing in primary care: a qualitative study.

Background: Inflammatory markers can be helpful as part of the diagnostic workup for specific diseases or for monitoring disease activity. A third use is as a screening and/or triage tool to differentiate between the presence or absence of disease. Most research into inflammatory markers looks at diagnosis of specific diseases and comes from secondary care.

Better the donor you know? A qualitative study of renal patients' views on 'altruistic' live-donor kidney transplantation.

Background: In the UK there is a short-fall between individuals requiring a renal transplant and kidneys available for transplantation. Non-directed 'altruistic' living kidney donation has emerged as a strategy for bridging this gap between supply and demand, with the number increasing each year.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the views of potential recipients towards non-directed 'altruistic' live-donor kidney transplantation.

The intellectual challenges and emotional consequences of equipoise contributed to the fragility of recruitment in six randomized controlled trials.

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate how doctors considered and experienced the concept of equipoise while recruiting patients to randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Study Design And Setting: In-depth interviews with 32 doctors in six publicly funded pragmatic RCTs explored their perceptions of equipoise as they undertook RCT recruitment. The RCTs varied in size, duration, type of complex intervention, and clinical specialties.

Clear obstacles and hidden challenges: understanding recruiter perspectives in six pragmatic randomised controlled trials.

Background: Recruitment of sufficient participants in an efficient manner is still widely acknowledged to be a major challenge to the mounting and completion of randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Few recruitment interventions have involved staff undertaking recruitment. This study aimed i) to understand the recruitment process from the perspective of recruiters actively recruiting RCT participants in six pragmatic RCTs, and ii) to identify opportunities for interventions to improve recruitment.

Using qualitative research to inform development of a diagnostic algorithm for UTI in children.

Background: Diagnostic and prognostic algorithms can help reduce clinical uncertainty. The selection of candidate symptoms and signs to be measured in case report forms (CRFs) for potential inclusion in diagnostic algorithms needs to be comprehensive, clearly formulated and relevant for end users.

Objective: To investigate whether qualitative methods could assist in designing CRFs in research developing diagnostic algorithms.

Patient advocacy and patient centredness in participant recruitment to randomized-controlled trials: implications for informed consent.

Context: With the routinization of evidence-based medicine and of the randomized-controlled trial (RCT), more patients are becoming 'sites of evidence production' yet, little is known about how they are recruited as participants; there is some evidence that 'substantively valid consent' is difficult to achieve.

Objective: To explore the views and experiences of nurses recruiting patients to randomized-controlled trials and to examine the extent to which their recruitment practices were patient-centred and patient empowering.

Design: Semi-structured in-depth interviews; audio recording of recruitment appointments; thematic interactional analysis (drawing on discourse and conversation analysis).

A review of reporting of participant recruitment and retention in RCTs in six major journals.

Background: Poor recruitment and retention of participants in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) is problematic but common. Clear and detailed reporting of participant flow is essential to assess the generalisability and comparability of RCTs. Despite improved reporting since the implementation of the CONSORT statement, important problems remain.

Using qualitative research methods to improve recruitment to randomized controlled trials: the Quartet study.

Objective: Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are considered the optimum method for evaluating health care interventions, yet many fail to recruit sufficient participants in a timely manner. The ProtecT (Prostate testing for cancer and Treatment) study employed qualitative research methods as part of a complex intervention to improve recruitment to the RCT. The Quartet (Qualitative research to improve recruitment to trials) study was set up to evalute whether the ProtecT study's success in increasing randomization rates could be replicated in other trials experiencing recruitment difficulties.

Evidence-based diagnosis.

Making an accurate diagnosis is essential to ensure that a patient receives appropriate treatment and correct information regarding their prognosis. Characteristics of diagnostic tests are quantified in test accuracy studies, but many such studies have methodological flaws. The HSRC evidence-based diagnosis programme has focused on methods for systematic reviews of test accuracy studies, and the wider context in which tests are ordered and interpreted.

Why is recruitment to trials difficult? An investigation into recruitment difficulties in an RCT of supported employment in patients with severe mental illness.

Background: Under-recruitment to randomised controlled trials (RCTs) is often problematic and there may be particular difficulties in recruiting patients with severe mental illness.

Aim: To evaluate reasons for under-recruitment in an RCT of patients with severe mental illness

Methods: Qualitative study during the recruitment phase of an RCT of supported employment. Trial staff and recruiting clinicians were interviewed.

Qualitative research to improve RCT recruitment: issues arising in establishing research collaborations.

Introduction: Strategies to improve recruitment to RCTs (randomised controlled trials) are limited. The ProtecT (Prostate testing for cancer and Treatment) study successfully developed a complex intervention based on qualitative research methods to increase recruitment rates. The Quartet study (Qualitative Research to Improve Recruitment to RCTs) was established to evaluate whether the ProtecT qualitative methods could be transferred into other RCTs.

A review identifies and classifies reasons for ordering diagnostic tests.

Objective: To consider the reasons and context for test ordering by doctors when faced with an undiagnosed complaint in primary or secondary care.

Study Design And Setting: We reviewed any study of any design that discussed factors that may affect a doctor's decision to order a test. Articles were located through searches of electronic databases, authors' files on diagnostic methodology, and reference lists of relevant studies.