Methods for Identifying Health Research Gaps, Needs, and Priorities: A Scoping Review.

Well-defined, systematic, and transparent processes to identify health research gaps, needs, and priorities are vital to ensuring that available funds target areas with the greatest potential for impact. This study documents a scoping review of published methods used for identifying health research gaps, establishing research needs, and determining research priorities and provides relevant information on 362 studies. Of the 362 studies, 167 were linked to funding decisionmaking and underwent a more detailed data abstraction process.

Provider Interventions to Increase Uptake of Evidence-Based Treatment for Depression: A Systematic Review.

The objective of this systematic review was to synthesize the effectiveness of health care provider interventions that aim to increase the uptake of evidence-based treatment of depression in routine clinical practice. This study summarizes results of comprehensive searches in the quality improvement, implementation science, and behavior change literature. Studies evaluated diverse provider interventions such as sending out depression guidelines to providers, education and training such as academic detailing, and combinations of education with other components such as targeting implementation barriers.

Veterans Health Administration Primary Care Provider Adherence to Prescribing Guidelines for Systemic Hormone Therapy in Menopausal Women.

Background: Systemic hormone therapy (HT) is effective for treating menopausal symptoms but also confers risks. Therefore, experts have developed clinical guidelines for its use.

Purpose: We assessed primary care guideline adherence in prescribing systemic HT, and associations between adherence and provider characteristics, in four Veterans Health Administration (VA) facilities.

Guideline Adherence of Veterans Health Administration Primary Care for Abnormal Uterine Bleeding.

Background: Abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) is common among primary care patients. We assessed the extent to which Veterans Health Administration (VA) primary care patients with AUB are receiving guideline-adherent primary care.

Methods: We identified women with AUB presenting to primary care providers across four VA health care systems from June 2013 to September 2015.

Development of Quality Indicators for the Care of Women with Abnormal Uterine Bleeding by Primary Care Providers in the Veterans Health Administration.

Background: Abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB) is a common women's health complaint. However, the quality of primary care (PC) management of AUB is unknown. Our objective was to develop quality indicators for Veterans Health Administration (VA) PC assessment and management of AUB.

Elusive search for effective provider interventions: a systematic review of provider interventions to increase adherence to evidence-based treatment for depression.

Background: Depression is a common mental health disorder for which clinical practice guidelines have been developed. Prior systematic reviews have identified complex organizational interventions, such as collaborative care, as effective for guideline implementation; yet, many healthcare delivery organizations are interested in less resource-intensive methods to increase provider adherence to guidelines and guideline-concordant practices. The objective of this systematic review was to assess the effectiveness of healthcare provider interventions that aim to increase adherence to evidence-based treatment of depression in routine clinical practice.

Assessing organizational readiness for depression care quality improvement: relative commitment and implementation capability.

Background: Depression is a major cause of morbidity and cost in primary care patient populations. Successful depression improvement models, however, are complex. Based on organizational readiness theory, a practice's commitment to change and its capability to carry out the change are both important predictors of initiating improvement.

Identifying quality improvement intervention publications--a comparison of electronic search strategies.

Background: The evidence base for quality improvement (QI) interventions is expanding rapidly. The diversity of the initiatives and the inconsistency in labeling these as QI interventions makes it challenging for researchers, policymakers, and QI practitioners to access the literature systematically and to identify relevant publications.

Methods: We evaluated search strategies developed for MEDLINE (Ovid) and PubMed based on free text words, Medical subject headings (MeSH), QI intervention components, continuous quality improvement (CQI) methods, and combinations of the strategies.

Identifying continuous quality improvement publications: what makes an improvement intervention 'CQI'?

Background: The term continuous quality improvement (CQI) is often used to refer to a method for improving care, but no consensus statement exists on the definition of CQI. Evidence reviews are critical for advancing science, and depend on reliable definitions for article selection.

Methods: As a preliminary step towards improving CQI evidence reviews, this study aimed to use expert panel methods to identify key CQI definitional features and develop and test a screening instrument for reliably identifying articles with the key features.