title: Promoting evidence-based management of anemia in cancer patients: background, development, and scientific validation of RESPOND, a web-based clinical guidance system based on the EORTC guidelines.
abstract: The 2006 EORTC guidelines for erythropoietic proteins in cancer-related anemia provide the most up-to-date assessment of the evidence base. Considering general concerns in medicine about clinicians' adoption of evidence-based guidelines, it is critical to find ways of bringing guidelines to the point of care. We describe the rationale behind RESPOND, a web-based clinical guidance system based on the EORTC guidelines, and the methodologies of two studies conducted to validate the system. In a first descriptive study, experts are asked to rate the accuracy of every algorithm derived from the guidelines. In a second step and using a hybrid matched pre-post design, separate retrospective and prospective patient cohorts matched by type of cancer and similarity of chemotherapy regimen (33 pairs) are used to examine the extent to which clinicians' practice patterns converge with the EORTC guidelines when they use or not use the RESPOND system. It is hypothesized that these studies will provide the necessary validation for RESPOND as an evidence-based clinical support tool.
authors.affiliation: Institut Multidisciplinaire d'Oncology, Clinique de Genolier, 1 Route du Muids, Genolier, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Matti
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aapro
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Erps
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: MacDonald
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Soubeyran
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muenzberg
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dunlop
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Warrinnier
authors.forename: Ivo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Abraham
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000740:Anemia / Q000188:drug therapy*; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*; D018579:Patient Selection; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic