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BackgroundInfluenced by an important paper by Michie et al., outlining the rationale and requirements for detailed reporting of behavior change interventions now required by Implementation Science, we created and refined a checklist to operationalize the Workgroup for Intervention Development and Evaluation Research (WIDER) recommendations in systematic reviews. The WIDER recommendations provide a framework to identify and provide detailed reporting of the essential components of behavior change interventions in order to facilitate replication, further development, and scale-up of the interventions.FindingsThe checklist was developed, applied, and improved over the course of four systematic reviews of knowledge translation (KT) strategies in a variety of healthcare settings conducted by Scott and associates. The checklist was created as one method of operationalizing the work of the WIDER in order to facilitate comparison across heterogeneous studies included in these systematic reviews. Numerous challenges were encountered in the process of creating and applying the checklist across four stages of development. The resulting improvements have produced a ‘user-friendly’ and replicable checklist to assess the quality of reporting of KT interventions in systematic reviews using the WIDER recommendations.ConclusionsWith journals, such as Implementation Science, using the WIDER recommendations as publication requirements for evaluation reports of behavior change intervention studies, it is crucial to find methods of examining, measuring, and reporting the quality of reporting. This checklist is one approach to operationalize the WIDER recommendations in systematic review methodology.

While it is important for the evidence supporting practice guidelines to be current, that is often not the case. The advent of living systematic reviews has made the concept of "living guidelines" realistic, with the promise to provide timely, up-to-date and high-quality guidance to target users. We define living guidelines as an optimization of the guideline development process to allow updating individual recommendations as soon as new relevant evidence becomes available. A major implication of that definition is that the unit of update is the individual recommendation and not the whole guideline. We then discuss when living guidelines are appropriate, the workflows required to support them, the collaboration between living systematic reviews and living guideline teams, the thresholds for changing recommendations, and potential approaches to publication and dissemination. The success and sustainability of the concept of living guideline will depend on those of its major pillar, the living systematic review. We conclude that guideline developers should both experiment with and research the process of living guidelines.

The modest-to-low methodological quality assessed in the studies underscores the gaps in KT strategies used in rehabilitation and highlights the need for rigorously designed studies that are well reported.

This article discusses four challenges to conducting qualitative focus groups: (1) maximizing research budgets through innovative methodological approaches, (2) recruiting health-care professionals for qualitative health research, (3) conducting focus groups with health-care professionals across geographically dispersed areas, and (4) taking into consideration data richness when using different focus group data collection methods. In light of these challenges, we propose two alternative approaches for collecting focus group data: (a) extended period of quantitative data collection that facilitated relationship building in the sites prior to qualitative focus groups and (b) focus groups by videoconference. We share our experiences on employing both of these approaches in two national research programs.

The physicians-many of whom noted their enjoyment of teaching for its intrinsic rewards-spent a significant amount of extra time teaching while precepting, and thus both lost income and saw fewer patients. Medical schools need to recognize the valuable contributions of preceptors and find ways to support them.

on behalf of the TREKK team ABSTRACTThe majority of children requiring emergency care are treated in general emergency departments (EDs) with variable levels of pediatric care expertise. The goal of the Translating Emergency Knowledge for Kids (TREKK) initiative is to implement the latest research in pediatric emergency medicine in general EDs to reduce clinical variation. Objectives: To determine national pediatric information needs, seeking behaviours, and preferences of health care professionals working in general EDs. Methods: An electronic cross-sectional survey was conducted with health care professionals in 32 Canadian general EDs. Data were collected in the EDs using the iPad and in-person data collectors. Results: Total of 1,471 surveys were completed (57.1% response rate). Health care professionals sought information on children's health care by talking to colleagues (n = 1,208, 82.1%), visiting specific medical/health websites (n = 994, 67.7%), and professional development opportunities (n = 941, 64.4%). Preferred child health resources included protocols and accepted treatments for common conditions (n = 969, 68%), clinical pathways and practice guidelines (n = 951, 66%), and evidence-based information on new diagnoses and treatments (n = 866, 61%). Additional pediatric clinical information is needed about multisystem trauma (n = 693, 49%), severe head injury (n = 615, 43%), and meningitis (n = 559, 39%). Health care professionals preferred to receive child health information through professional development opportunities (n = 1,131, 80%) and printed summaries (n = 885, 63%). Conclusion:By understanding health care professionals' information seeking behaviour, information needs, and information preferences, knowledge synthesis and knowledge translation initiatives can be targeted to improve pediatric emergency care. The findings from this study will inform the following two phases of the TREKK initiative to bridge the research-practice gap in Canadian general EDs. RÉSUMÉContexte: La plupart des enfants ayant besoin de soins d'urgence sont traités dans des services des urgences (SU) généraux dotés, à des degrés variables, de spécialistes en soins pédiatriques. L'initiative Translating Emergency Knowledge for Kids (TREKK) a pour but l'application des résultats les plus récents de la recherche en médecine d'urgence pédiatrique dans les SU généraux afin d'atténuer les différences de soins cliniques. Objectif: L'étude décrite ici visait à déterminer, à l'échelle nationale, les besoins d'information en pédiatrie des professionnels de la santé travaillant dans des SU généraux, leurs comportements dans la recherche d'information ainsi que leurs préférences quant à l'obtention d'information. Méthode: Il s'agit d'une enquête transversale électronique, menée parmi des professionnels de la santé, dans 32 services des urgences généraux, au Canada. La collecte de donnée dans les SU s'est faite à l'aide de tablettes électroniques (iPad) et de consignateurs de données, en personne. Résultats: Au total, 1471 question...

BackgroundAn emerging field of knowledge translation (KT) research has begun to focus on health consumers, particularly in child health. KT tools provide health consumers with research knowledge to inform health decision-making and may foster ‘effective consumers’. Thus, the purpose of this scoping review was to describe the state of the field of previously published effectiveness research on child health-related KT tools for parents/caregivers to understand the evidence-base, identify gaps, and guide future research efforts.MethodsA health research librarian developed and implemented search strategies in 8 databases. One reviewer conducted screening using pre-determined criteria. A second reviewer verified 10% of screening decisions. Data extraction was performed by one reviewer. A descriptive analysis was conducted and included patient-important outcome classification, WIDER Recommendation checklist, and methodological quality assessment.ResultsSeven thousand nine hundred fifty two independent titles and abstracts were reviewed, 2267 full-text studies were retrieved and reviewed, and 18 articles were included in the final data set. A variety of KT tools, including single- (n = 10) and multi-component tools (n = 10), were evaluated spanning acute (n = 4), chronic (n = 5) and public/population health (n = 9) child health topics. Study designs included: cross-sectional (n = 4), before-after (n = 1), controlled before-after (n = 2), cohort (n = 1), and RCTs (n = 10). The KT tools were evaluated via single primary outcome category (n = 11) and multiple primary outcome categories (n = 7). Two studies demonstrated significant positive effects on primary outcome categories; the remaining studies demonstrated mixed effects (n = 9) and no effect (n = 3). Overall, methodological quality was poor; studies lacked a priori protocols (n = 18) and sample size calculations (n = 13). Overall, intervention reporting was also poor; KT tools lacked description of theoretical underpinnings (n = 14), end-user engagement (n = 13), and preliminary research (n = 9) to inform the current effectiveness evaluation.ConclusionsA number of child health-related knowledge translation tools have been developed for parents/caregivers. However, numerous outcomes were used to assess impact and there is limited evidence demonstrating their effectiveness. Moreover, the methodological rigor and reporting of effectiveness studies is limited. Careful tool development involving end-users and preliminary research, including usability testing and mixed methods, prior to large-scale studies may be important to advance the science of KT for health consumers.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-017-2632-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.