Developing templates for uniform data documentation and reporting in critical care using a modified nominal group technique

BACKGROUND Clinical practice in trauma and critical care is predominantly derived from quantitative observational cohort studies based on data retrospectively collected from medical records. Such data create uncontrolled bias and influence external and internal validity, thereby hindering systematic reviews. Templates or standards for uniform documenting and scientific reporting may result in high quality and internationally standardised data being collected on a regular basis, enhance large international multi-centre studies, and increase the quality of evidence. Templates or standards may be developed using multidisciplinary expert panel consensus methods.We present three consensus processes aimed at developing templates for documenting and scientific reporting. We discuss the advantages, limitations, and possible future improvements of our method. METHODS The template preparation was based on expert panel consensus derived through a modified nominal group technique (NGT) method that combined the traditional Delphi method with the traditional NGT method in a four-step process. RESULTS Standard templates for documenting and scientific reporting were developed for major trauma, pre-hospital advanced airway handling, and physician-staffed pre-hospital EMS. All templates were published in scientific journals. CONCLUSION Our modified NGT consensus method can successfully be used to establish templates for reporting trauma and critical care data. When used in a structured manner, the method uses recognised experts to achieve consensus, but based on our experiences, we recommend the consensus process to be followed by feasibility, reliability, and validity testing.