TY - JOUR
T1 - Virtual standardized patients
T2 - An interactive method to examine variation in depression care among primary care physicians
AU - Hooper, Lisa M.
AU - Weinfurt, Kevin P.
AU - Cooper, Lisa A.
AU - Mensh, Julie
AU - Harless, William
AU - Kuhajda, Melissa C.
AU - Epstein, Steven A.
PY - 2008/10
Y1 - 2008/10
N2 - Some primary care physicians provide less than optimal care for depression (Kessler et al., Journal of the American Medical Association 291, 2581–90, 2004). However, the literature is not unanimous on the best method to use in order to investigate this variation in care. To capture variations in physician behaviour and decision making in primary care settings, 32 interactive CD-ROM vignettes were constructed and tested. The primary aim of this methods-focused paper was to review the extent to which our study method – an interactive CD-ROM patient vignette methodology – was effective in capturing variation in physician behaviour. Specifically, we examined the following questions: (a) Did the interactive CD-ROM technology work? (b) Did we create believable virtual patients? (c) Did the research protocol enable interviews (data collection) to be completed as planned? (d) To what extent was the targeted study sample size achieved? and (e) Did the study interview protocol generate valid and reliable quantitative data and rich, credible qualitative data? Among a sample of 404 randomly selected primary care physicians, our voice-activated interactive methodology appeared to be effective. Specifically, our methodology – combining interactive virtual patient vignette technology, experimental design, and expansive open-ended interview protocol – generated valid explanations for variations in primary care physician practice patterns related to depression care.
AB - Some primary care physicians provide less than optimal care for depression (Kessler et al., Journal of the American Medical Association 291, 2581–90, 2004). However, the literature is not unanimous on the best method to use in order to investigate this variation in care. To capture variations in physician behaviour and decision making in primary care settings, 32 interactive CD-ROM vignettes were constructed and tested. The primary aim of this methods-focused paper was to review the extent to which our study method – an interactive CD-ROM patient vignette methodology – was effective in capturing variation in physician behaviour. Specifically, we examined the following questions: (a) Did the interactive CD-ROM technology work? (b) Did we create believable virtual patients? (c) Did the research protocol enable interviews (data collection) to be completed as planned? (d) To what extent was the targeted study sample size achieved? and (e) Did the study interview protocol generate valid and reliable quantitative data and rich, credible qualitative data? Among a sample of 404 randomly selected primary care physicians, our voice-activated interactive methodology appeared to be effective. Specifically, our methodology – combining interactive virtual patient vignette technology, experimental design, and expansive open-ended interview protocol – generated valid explanations for variations in primary care physician practice patterns related to depression care.
KW - depression care
KW - interactive vignette methodology
KW - physician decision making
KW - primary care
KW - virtual patients
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85011526572&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85011526572&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S1463423608000820
DO - 10.1017/S1463423608000820
M3 - Article
C2 - 20463864
AN - SCOPUS:85011526572
SN - 1463-4236
VL - 9
SP - 257
EP - 268
JO - Primary Health Care Research and Development
JF - Primary Health Care Research and Development
IS - 4
ER -