title: Characteristics of Academic Detailing: Results of a Literature Review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Academic detailing is an evidence-based strategy to improve patient care. Efforts to understand the intervention and to use it strategically require an understanding of its important characteristics. A recent systematic review and a subsequent reporting framework call for more accurate and complete reporting of continuing medical education interventions.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Building on a previously published systematic review of 69 studies, we sought to determine how an expanded set of 106 academic detailing studies, including many recently published articles, fared with respect to reporting of important data about this intervention.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a search of MEDLINE, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (clinical) database, and Scopus, from which we identified 38 additional randomized controlled trials published from August 2007 through March 2013. Including the original 69 studies, we abstracted 106 available English-language studies and quantitatively analyzed information about 4 important characteristics of academic detailing: content of visits, clinicians being visited, communication process underlying visits, and outreach workers making visits.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found considerable variation (36.5%-100%) in the extent of reporting intervention characteristics, especially about the communication process underlying visits and the outreach workers making visits. The best overall documentation of intervention characteristics of any single study was 68%. Results also demonstrate wide variation in the approach to academic detailing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrates the need for a standardized approach to collecting and reporting data about academic detailing interventions. Our findings also highlight opportunities for using academic detailing more effectively in research and quality-improvement efforts.
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, University of Connecticut School of Nursing, Storrs, CT, and Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine and Health Care, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Farmington, CT.
authors.forename: Thomas J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Van Hoof
authors.affiliation: PhD candidate, University of Connecticut School of Nursing, Storrs, CT.
authors.forename: Lisa G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.affiliation: Nurse, Hartford Healthcare, Hartford, CT.
authors.forename: Nicole E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Nurse Practitioner, Division of Neuroscience, Hartford Hospital, Hartford, CT, and a PhD candidate, University of Connecticut School of Nursing, Storrs, CT.
authors.forename: Maryanne S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Pappas
authors.affiliation: Director, National Resource Center for Academic Detailing, Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Fischer
keywords: academic detailing; continuing education; continuing medical education; educational outreach; health professions education; narrative review; quality improvement; systematic review