eviQ cancer treatments online: how does the web-based protocol system fare in a comprehensive quality assessment?

摘要

AIMS: There have been few evaluations of the quality of computerized decision support tools in medical oncology despite their widespread use in clinical practice. In this article, we provide an in-depth quality assessment of eviQ, an Australian web-based protocol system. METHODS: We used the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE-II) instrument to examine the quality of eviQ chemotherapy protocols across six domains: scope and purpose, stakeholder involvement, rigor of development, clarity of presentation, applicability, editorial independence and overall quality rating. Domain scores were categorized as high quality (scores of >70%), moderate quality (30-70%), and low quality (<30%). RESULTS: eviQ was rated highly with respect to articulating its scope and purpose, clarity of presentation, applicability and on the overall rating item (scores of 72-80%). Domains addressing the involvement of stakeholders in the development process and the rigor with which protocols were developed were of moderate quality (scores of 34-37%) and the management of editorial independence and conflict of interest issues were rated in the low quality range (22%). CONCLUSION: Our evaluation demonstrated the eviQ protocol system is generally of high quality. However, we identified a number of areas in which eviQ could improve either its development processes or the means by which these processes are communicated to end-users. This research represents the first comprehensive evaluation of oncology protocols and paves the way for continued quality assurance research to ensure that these tools meet their objective of facilitating evidence-based medicine, standardizing treatment and, ultimately, improving patient outcomes.