The evaluation of an evidence-based clinical answer format for pediatricians

An online survey was sent to pediatricians via e-mail and posted on a child health clinical standards website. Quantitative data analysis consisted primarily of descriptive statistics; qualitative data analysis consisted of content analysis.Eighty-three pediatricians responded to the survey. Most respondents found the CA useful or very useful (93%) and agreed or strongly agreed that the layout was effective and allowed them to quickly locate critical information (82%). Quantitative and qualitative data suggested that respondents thought there should be less detail in the linked figures and tables (p = 0.0002), but overall respondents seemed to think there was an appropriate level of detail in most sections of the CA.Based on the quantitative and qualitative survey responses, major and minor modifications to the CA format were implemented, such as removing forest plots, adding links in each addendum to bring the user back to the front page, and adding an 'Implications for practice' section to the CA. Findings suggest that CAs will be a useful tool for pediatricians; thus, the research team has now begun creating CAs to assist busy clinicians in their day-to-day clinical practice by providing high-quality information for decision-making at the point-of-care.The Cochrane Child Health Field is a small knowledge intensive organisation [1] that functions within The Cochrane Collaboration to advocate for high-quality scientific evidence that reflects the particular needs of infants, children and youth. Furthermore, the Child Health Field works within the child health community to advocate for decision-making based on finding, understanding, and using the best available evidence. Out of these mandates came the Clinical Answers (CAs) project, which aims to develop short, one-page summaries of evidence to quickly answer questions posed by pediatricians.Studies suggest that clinicians are increasingly turning to electronic evidence to find information to support clinical decis