Related Experiment Videos
Eliciting expert opinion using the Delphi technique: identifying performance indicators for cardiovascular disease
S L Normand1, B J McNeil, L E Peterson
1Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. sharon@hcp.med.harvard.edu
Summary
Expert panels are increasingly used to define healthcare quality. This study details methods for gathering expert opinions to create cardiovascular performance measures.
Area of Science:
- Health Services Research
- Medical Informatics
- Public Health Policy
Background:
- Expert panel consensus is a growing method for establishing healthcare quality standards.
- The Rand Corporation pioneered this technique for technological forecasting; it's now widely used for policy development.
- This methodology involves eliciting expert opinions on medical treatment appropriateness for specific patient groups.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe a methodology for eliciting information from diverse expert panels.
- To demonstrate the application of this panel process using real-world data.
- To identify a set of cardiovascular-related performance measures.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing a panel process to gather expert opinions on healthcare quality criteria.
- Convening five distinct expert panels for the Harvard Q-SPAN-CD study.
- Applying established methods for combining expert judgments to create performance measures.
Main Results:
- The study successfully applied the expert panel process to elicit relevant information.
- Data from five panels were used to demonstrate the methodology.
- The process is geared towards identifying cardiovascular performance measures.
Conclusions:
- The expert panel method is a viable approach for developing healthcare quality indicators.
- This methodology can be used to create specific performance measures, such as those for cardiovascular care.
- The Harvard Q-SPAN-CD study provides a practical example of this consensus-building technique.