BACKGROUND Attribute selection represents an important step in the development of discrete-choice experiments (DCEs), but is often poorly reported. In some situations, the number of attributes identified may exceed what one may find possible to pilot in a DCE. Hence, there is a need to gain insight into methods to select attributes in order to construct the final list of attributes. This study ...

OBJECTIVE To identify characteristics (factors) about health technology assessment (HTA) decisions that are important to the public in determining whether public engagement should be undertaken and the reasons for these choices. DESIGN Focus groups using a nominal group technique to identify and rank factors relevant to public engagement in HTA decision-making. Thematic analysis was also unde...

BACKGROUND Empirical knowledge around palliative care provision and needs of people with intellectual disabilities is extremely limited, as is the availability of research resources, including expertise and funding. This paper describes a consultation process that sought to develop an agenda for research priorities for palliative care of people with intellectual disabilities in Europe. METHOD...

Methods by using the Delphi and Nominal Group Technique, we started an initial phase of three following e-mail surveys. In the first survey, clinicians/biologists or other health professionals working in the field of autoinflammation were asked to identify the variables that they consider as important, in the current clinical practice, for the diagnosis of patients with PFAPA. This survey was o...

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 h...

In a recent article in Information Systems Research, Pinsonneault et al. (1999) present a thorough and compelling summary of theoretical factors that act to enhance and impair productivity in electronic brainstorming (EBS) groups as contrasted with traditional verbal brainstorming groups and nominal group brainstorming. They assume that all theoretical factors are equally important and remain c...

Electronic brainstorming (EBS) has been a focus of academic research since the 1980s. The results suggest that in most--but not all--cases, groups using EBS produce more ideas than groups using verbal brainstorming. In contrast, the results comparing groups using EBS to groups using nominal group brainstorming have been mixed: sometimes EBS groups produce more ideas, while in other cases, nomin...

Introduction: Research in education is a globally significant issuewithout a long history. Due to the importance of the issue in HealthSystem Development programs, this study intended to determineresearch priorities in medical education, considering their detailsand functions. By determining barriers existing in research ineducation progress, it is tried to make research priorities morefunction...