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Cutting Lag Time in Implementing Findings JAMA Authors Discuss Research Findings with Health Care Practitioners During Conference Calls
Shortening the lag time between published research and medical practice
The staffs of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) conducted 15 monthly telephone conference calls in which authors of recently published JAMA articles discussed their research findings with health care practitioners.
The purpose was to reduce the gap between available scientific knowledge and everyday practice. Practitioners were able to register for the calls without charge and participate on a toll-free line. The project included participant surveys to evaluate the impact of the calls.
Key Results
- A total of 3,517 individuals participated in the 15 conference calls conducted monthly from March 2005 through May 2006.
- The number of participants varied from call to call-from 30 for a discussion of hernia repair to 1,061 for an article on health care performance measurement.
- Of 119 participants who completed a three-month follow-up survey, 43 percent said they had made a change in their professional practice based on the Author in the Room discussion. Ninety percent said they found the discussion very valuable or somewhat valuable to their practice.
Funding
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) supported the call series — entitled Author in the Room — and evaluation from September 2004 through September 2006 with a $216,296 grant (ID# 050951) to the institute. The monthly calls continued with JAMA funding when the RWJF grant ended.