Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31578187›Full record

ArticleBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2019

Variation in responsiveness to warranted behaviour change among NHS clinicians: novel implementation of change detection methods in longitudinal prescribing data.

Alex J Walker, Felix Pretis, Anna Powell-Smith, Ben Goldacre

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
14citing papers in PubMed
9.3field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

14 citing papers in PubMed, 44 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Observational
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. General practice responses to opioid prescribing feedback: a qualitative process evaluation.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2021
    Article
  11. Observational
  12. Article
  13. Prescription of suboptimal statin treatment regimens: a retrospective cohort study of trends and variation in English primary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2020
    Article
  14. Short-term forecasting of the coronavirus pandemic.International journal of forecasting
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Alex J WalkerThe DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5127-4728
Felix PretisDepartment of Economics, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
Anna Powell-SmithThe DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK.
Ben GoldacreThe DataLab, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK ben.goldacre@phc.ox.ac.uk.
University of Oxford · GBUniversity of Victoria · CA

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesTo determine how clinicians vary in their response to new guidance on existing or new interventions, by measuring the timing and magnitude of change at healthcare institutions.

designAutomated change detection in longitudinal prescribing data.

settingPrescribing data in English primary care.

participantsEnglish general practices.

main outcome measuresIn each practice the following were measured: the timing of the largest changes, steepness of the change slope (change in proportion per month), and magnitude of the change for two example time series (expiry of the Cerazette patent in 2012, leading to cheaper generic desogestrel alternatives becoming available; and a change in antibiotic prescribing guidelines after 2014, favouring nitrofurantoin over trimethoprim for uncomplicated urinary tract infection (UTI)).

resultsSubstantial heterogeneity was found between institutions in both timing and steepness of change. The range of time delay before a change was implemented was large (interquartile range 2-14 months (median 8) for Cerazette, and 5-29 months (18) for UTI). Substantial heterogeneity was also seen in slope following a detected change (interquartile range 2-28% absolute reduction per month (median 9%) for Cerazette, and 1-8% (2%) for UTI). When changes were implemented, the magnitude of change showed substantially less heterogeneity (interquartile range 44-85% (median 66%) for Cerazette and 28-47% (38%) for UTI).

conclusionsSubstantial variation was observed in the speed with which individual NHS general practices responded to warranted changes in clinical practice. Changes in prescribing behaviour were detected automatically and robustly. Detection of structural breaks using indicator saturation methods opens up new opportunities to improve patient care through audit and feedback by moving away from cross sectional analyses, and automatically identifying institutions that respond rapidly, or slowly, to warranted changes in clinical practice.

Indexed as

Anti-Infective AgentsDatasets as TopicDrug PrescriptionsDrugs, GenericDrug SubstitutionEnglandGeneral PracticeHumansPractice Guidelines as TopicPractice Patterns, Physicians'Process Assessment, Health CareQuality Indicators, Health CareState MedicineTime FactorsUrinary Tract InfectionsAnti-Infective AgentsDrugs, Generic

Identifiers

PMID31578187
PMCPMC6771379
OpenAlexW2965311203

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.