When Educational Material Is Delivered: A Mixed Methods Content Validation Study of the Information Assessment...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Health Informatics
• Continuing Professional Development

Background:

• The Information Assessment Method (IAM) is utilized by over 15,000 Canadian physicians and pharmacists.
• IAM facilitates reporting on the cognitive impact, clinical relevance, and patient health benefits of emailed clinical information.
• Information providers use IAM feedback to enhance their educational products.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate the Information Assessment Method (IAM) questionnaire for educational material delivery.
• To assess the ecological and logical content validity of the IAM.
• To measure the relevance and evaluate the representativeness of IAM items for emailed information.

Main Methods:

• A 3-part mixed-methods study combining quantitative and qualitative approaches.
• Quantitative analysis involved 5596 physicians rating the relevance of 23 IAM items.
• Qualitative analysis included interviews with 15 family physicians to assess item representativeness.

Main Results:

• 21 out of 23 IAM items were validated for content.
• Two items were found irrelevant (R=4.86% and R=3.04%), and one item was not representative.
• A fully validated version, IAM-v2014, was generated based on user and expert input.

Conclusions:

• The study successfully produced a content-validated IAM questionnaire (IAM-v2014).
• The validated IAM is a valuable tool for clinicians and information providers.
• It aids in assessing clinical information within continuing education programs.