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Transcript of Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting Excellence (SQUIRE) Frank Davidoff Susan Kirsh Greg...
Standards for Quality Improvement Reporting
Excellence (SQUIRE)
Frank DavidoffSusan KirshGreg Ogrinc
VA CyberseminarDecember 2, 2008
Objectives
• Understand the origin and development of the SQUIRE publication guidelines
• Identify how one author has used the guidelines to publish her work
• Review the SQUIRE guideline website
• Start on your homework for Dec 16
Why publication guidelines?The SQUIRE story
Frank Davidoff
VA Cyberseminar
December 2, 2008
The Problem:Failure to publish QI work
1. Why is it a problem?2. Why isn’t it published more often?3. Why is it so hard to write about QI?4. What are the SQUIRE publication
guidelines?5. How can they help?
Failure to publish QI work: 1. Why is it a problem?
• Fails to advance the science
• Limits transparency, public accountability
• Slows dissemination of proven interventions
• Less stimulation of new ideas, innovation
• Permits unnecessary/redundant work
• Limits learning from mistakes
Failure to publish QI work: 2. Why isn’t it published more often?
• Done by busy “front line” professionals– More concerned with local change than discovering
generalizable truths
• Lack of training, experience in research, publishing
• Academic incentives often not relevant• Editors, peer-reviewers unfamiliar, skeptical• Writing about QI is hard
Failure to publish QI work:3. Why is writing about QI so hard?
• The heart of the matter:– QI is NOT the same as drugs, tests, clinical procedures
• QI is performance change, driven by experiential learning• Context-dependent• Interventions are complex, multi-component• Problems occur at various organizational levels, type varies• Interventions adapted, evolve in response to feedback
(reflexive)• Change is fragile, results unstable
• Result: uncertainty about what evidence is needed• Little guidance available on how to study, hence
on how to write in this area
Failure to publish QI work:4. What are the SQUIRE guidelines?
• Checklist: 19 items, information to consider in QI reports• Models: Other guidelines (e.g., CONSORT, STROBE, etc.)• Focus: Content, rather than study design• Development: Several years, iterative process, multiple
endorsers• Immediate purpose: To increase completeness, precision,
transparency• Ultimate purpose: To encourage more and better reports• Target audience(s): Mainly authors, but also reviewers,
editors, users of QI reports; funders• Dissemination: website (squire-statement.org), articles (6)
Failure to publish QI work:5. How can SQUIRE help?
• SQUIRE does:– Offer guidance on:
• Content: e.g., context-dependence, complexity, reflexiveness• Organization: IMRaD format, • Methods: evaluation of impact, and explanation of
mechanisms
• SQUIRE doesn’t:– Apply to reviews, commentary– Demand rigid or mechanical use– Prescribe specific study designs– Define intended audience, readership, journal– Clean up a messy room; just turns on the light so you can see what
needs to be cleaned up
Failure to publish QI work:Summing up
• People often don’t publish solid, important QI work
• Failure to publish is a problem• Lots of reasons for this failure
– QI is not the same as most clinical interventions– Writing is hard– Little guidance on studying, writing, publishing
• SQUIRE guidelines encourage publication of complete, accurate, transparent reports
• Use them, share that experience with us!
Rigor, Relevance, and Rigor, Relevance, and Reality: WorldReality: World
A Tale of Two Papers A Tale of Two Papers Using SQUIRE GuidelinesUsing SQUIRE Guidelines
Susan Kirsh, MDSusan Kirsh, MDLouis Stokes Cleveland VAMCLouis Stokes Cleveland VAMC
October 24, 2008October 24, 2008HPECHPEC
QI is hard; publishing QI is very hard.QI is hard; publishing QI is very hard.
Continuum of Quality Improvement and
Research:Rigor vs. RelevanceOperations
“Relevant”Context-Dependent
Problem SolvingQuantitative >, <, or =
QualitativePre-test post-test or
quasiexperimental designsTends to be NON-LINEAR
Research
“Rigorous” Identify generalizable
knowledge, i.e.,Eliminate Context
PublishableQuantitative>Qualitative
RCTs RuleTends to be LINEAR Continuum not a dichotomyContinuum not a dichotomy
Goal is relevance moving as close to rigor as one canGoal is relevance moving as close to rigor as one can
Potential
Synergy
*** Danger ****** Danger ***Linear Fallacy of Research and QI: Widely-held assumption that social and biological systems can be largely understood by dissecting out micro-components and analyzing them in isolation.
A P
S D
APS
D
A P
S DD S
P ADATA
The journey up the ramp of complexity is NOT linear.
Com
ple
xit
y
Time
Com
plex
ity
Time
APS
D
P PS D
A P
S DP
SD
AP
SD
Challenges
Opportunities
P
D
AS
PD
Revised Conceptual Model of Rapid Cycle ChangeTomolo, Lawrence, and Aron, QSHC, in press.
Legend:P=Plan D= Do = Barrier = Direct flow of impact S=Study A=Act = Lingering background impact Arrowhead = Feedback or feedforwardDifferent Sizes of letters and cycles and bolding of letters = denotes differences in importance/impact
ResearchResearch
Project is fixed Context
must adapt
Context is fixed
Project must adapt
Practice
• Target of the interventions – the context - cannot as easily be controlled, randomized or matched in the same way as can patients
• Quality programs usually cannot be controlled or standardized
• The context of the intervention is constantly changing
Why? In short, the issue is CONTEXT
T. Greenhalgh
Initial design: pre-test post-test with 44 patients
Reviewer comments - 3 times Lack of recognition that this was a quality
improvement project Put ‘QI’ in the title
Organization/Format issues Inserted SQUIRE as signposts and follow a familiar
format
Reviewer #2 comments re: first Reviewer #2 comments re: first versionversion
“The major problem is the lack of a control group. The participants were selected based on high levels of particular measures.”
“The second problem is that the people are treated in clusters, and that therefore the independence assumption of the statistical tests is violated”
“An appropriate method of analysis should be used– such as multilevel models, generalised estimating equations or Huber-White sandwich estimators.” (Note that subsequent reviews from this
reviewer were even worse!
ResponseResponseChanged design to quasi-experimental: Added a control group – matched, concurrent, but not randomized. Use as much rigor as possible: Consider sources of bias and address wherever possible eg., regression to the mean
Required 3 revisions overallPersistence pays offIt was a much better paper as a result of the reviewers’ comments. Leave your ego out of it.
Qualitative work adds another dimension that makes quantitative data more meaningful
Used framework of Grol model to add structure and rigor
Triangulation
Reviewer commentsReviewer comments “The majority of the paper is placed
in a section entitled ‘Methods and Conceptual Framework’. It is easy to get lost in this section, and difficult to find key information. It would be worth attempting switching the structure to the more common Introduction, Methods, Findings, Discussion/conclusion format. For example, the methods were unclear.” More signposts needed
Changes based on Changes based on reviewsreviews
Use of SOME signposts of SQUIRE, but not all applicable
Less than previous paper
This paper also required several revisions, but it is a much better paper as a result. If you can choose a
reviewer, choose one who will be critical and thoughtful, but unbiased.
Final lessonsFinal lessons
Begin with the end in mind Squire guidelines can help more at the
beginning than at the end. Make conceptual model explicit and
specify context as much as you can. Plan for that (choose a comprehensive
framework, e.g., CFIR, PARIHS, Greenhalgh, Grol)
You cannot document too much Recognize the rigor/relevance balance
and consider the reviewers’ background.
www.squire-statement.org
Charge to Participants
Between now and Dec 16, review the SQUIRE website
www.squire-statement.org
1. What works well about the guidelines?
2. How does the website help understand and use the guidelines?
3. What questions remain for you about the SQUIRE guidelines?
4. How can the website be improved?
Summary• Thanks to the SQUIRE web team: Leslie
Walker, Susan Mooney, Scott Chesnutt, Scott Hepler
• SQUIRE guidelines offer guidance– not intended as “must haves” – guidance to write about your improvement
efforts– share important findings with others
• Several tools available– SQUIRE articles (QSHC supplement, online)– www.squire-statement.org