Comparing clinical quality indicators for asthma management in children with outcome measures used in randomised controlled trials: a protocol.
BACKGROUND
Clinical quality indicators are necessary to monitor the performance of healthcare services. The development of indicators should, wherever possible, be based on research evidence to minimise the risk of bias which may be introduced during their development, because of logistic, ethical or financial constraints alone. The development of automated methods to identify the evidence base for candidate indicators should improve the process of indicator development. The objective of this study is to explore the relationship between clinical quality indicators for asthma management in children with outcome and process measurements extracted from randomised controlled clinical trial reports.


METHODS
National-level indicators for asthma management in children will be extracted from the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse (NQMC) database and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) quality standards. Outcome measures will be extracted from published English language randomised controlled trial (RCT) reports for asthma management in children aged below 12 years. The two sets of measures will be compared to assess any overlap. The study will provide insights into the relationship between clinical quality indicators and measurements in RCTs. This study will also yield a list of measurements used in RCTs for asthma management in children, and will find RCT evidence for indicators used in practice.


BACKGROUND
Ethical approval is not necessary because this study will not include patient data. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications.
Centre for Health Informatics, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Miew Keen
MK
Choong
Centre for Health Informatics, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Guy
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4353-2026
G
Tsafnat
Centre for Health Resilience and Implementation Science, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Centre for Population Health Research, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Peter
P
Hibbert
Centre for Health Resilience and Implementation Science, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Centre for Population Health Research, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia Australian Patient Safety Foundation, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
William B
WB
Runciman
Centre for Health Informatics, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Enrico
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6444-6584
E
Coiera
D001249:Asthma / Q000628:therapy*; D035843:Biomedical Research; D002648:Child; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D019468:Disease Management; D006801:Humans; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D012107:Research Design
HEALTH SERVICES ADMINISTRATION & MANAGEMENT