Physicians found an interactive tool displaying structured evidence summaries for multiple comparisons understandable...

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Clinical Decision Support Systems
• Evidence-Based Medicine

Background:

• Network meta-analysis (NMA) provides comprehensive evidence summaries but can be challenging for clinicians to interpret.
• Digital tools are needed to bridge the gap between complex evidence synthesis and clinical practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate and enhance the "Making Alternative Treatment Choices Intuitive and Trustworthy" (MATCH-IT) tool for physician use.
• To improve physicians' ability to interpret and apply NMA evidence in clinical decision-making.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative user-centered design and iterative development.
• User testing with 26 physicians across Norway, Belgium, and Canada.
• Think-aloud sessions and semistructured interviews analyzed via directed content analysis.

Main Results:

• Physicians found MATCH-IT easy to interpret and appreciated its evidence overview, pictograms, and practical issue information.
• Identified areas for improvement included navigation, tutorial clarity, and definitions of key terms.
• Updates focused on user interface, definitions, FAQs, color-coding, and filtering to reduce information overload.

Conclusions:

• MATCH-IT demonstrates proof of concept for physician understanding of NMA evidence.
• Key features include evidence overview, effect visualization, and practical treatment burden information.
• Challenges include familiarity with GRADE concepts, time constraints, and point-of-care accessibility.