Final Delphi Results!

To begin – thanks to all of you who participated in our final Delphi round which ended July 7th. Our heartfelt thanks to ALL who participated in this very interesting study of research priorities in rural family medicine.

Twenty-five rural family physicians across Alberta were selected as key informants for this study, based on their interest and experience in rural family medicine in relation to practice and/ or research. In the end, three physicians were not able to participate in the study. The remaining 22 participants provided a wealth of ideas and feedback regarding research priorities in rural family medicine. We obtained an excellent rate of participation across the five rounds:

• Round 1 = 16/20 = 80.0% participation rate
• Round 2 = 19/22 = 86.4%participation rate
• Round 3 = 15/22 = 68.2% participation rate
• Round 4 = 19/22 = 86.4% participation rate
• Round 5 = 18/22 = 81.8% participation rate

Over 35% of our key informants provided input across all five rounds (8/22), 6 participated in four rounds, and 7 participated in three Delphi rounds.

All participants have now completed the Demographic Questionnaire. We are currently compiling the data. A summary of the demographic and professional characteristics of those who participated in this study will be posted on the website within the next few weeks.

Without much further ado, however, we are pleased to present the final listing of research priorities for rural family medicine in Alberta, as identified through the Delphi process that we recently completed.

As we noted in an email message that we sent to you in late June, a preliminary review of responses to Round 5 suggested that not all of the 11 research priorities we thought might guide a research agenda for rural family medicine – based on input we received from the group in Round 4 – were endorsed as research priorities in Round 5.

Based on patterns of endorsement in Round 5, only seven (7) research areas have been included in our final set of identified research priorities for rural family medicine in Alberta.

Table 1. Research Priorities for Rural Family Medicine in Alberta, Canada

No other areas received substantive support as research priorities, regardless of arguments that were made by some of the participants, or opportunity to reconsider other areas that had been previously excluded as research priorities given lack of support in earlier rounds.

When we asked about our proposed final, or penultimate listing of research priorities, your responses suggested that our list did provide a valid representation of the main research concerns of rural family physicians in rural Alberta. We calculated the mean rating on our validity scale as 4.7 (end-points on this scale ranged from 1 “not at all valid” to 5 “very much so”).

Other feedback suggested that many of you are interested in pursuing relevant and interesting research questions in rural family medicine, or ensuring that such questions are addressed. Ten of the 18 key informants who participated in Round 5 indicated that they would be interested in continuing involvement in rural family medicine research, by helping to specify a research question or participate in developing a research proposal related to one or more of the research priorities identified through this study.

We have summarized the results of Round 5 in four PDF files that can be found on project website under “Results of Previous Rounds” – or by clicking on the following links:

• Round 5 Summary – Part A: % of Delphi Participants Endorsing Research Priorities Proposed in Round 4
• Round 5 Summary – Part B: Response to Arguments for Considering 3 Addn’al Research Areas
• Round 5 Summary – Part C: Response to Remaining Areas
• Round 5 Summary – Part D: Feedback

With regard to upcoming and ongoing events, issues, questions, etc.: …

1) Although access to the project website will continue to be restricted over the next while (that is to those who have participated in this project), we plan on opening the website in September or October to anyone who may be interested in reviewing the results of the study.

2) We also plan on presenting the findings of this study at several meetings over the coming months, including Rural Wonca (Santiago de Compestela, Spain; September 24-27), Family Medicine Forum (Calgary, Alberta; October 23-25), and the North American Primary Care Research Group (Banff, Alberta; October 25-27). Details regarding these presentations are available on the main menu of the project website (click on "Events").

3) We are developing proposals for workshops that we hope to hold as part of the Cabin Fever and Spring Seeding events next year in which we might begin the process of developing a competitive research proposal based on the research priorities identified in this study. We plan on sending an update regarding this to all who participated in this study by email in the next month or two.

4) Cheques for the balance of your honorarium were sent out in June. Please let us know if you have not received your cheque (send a message by e-mail pbrett-maclean@med.ualberta.ca).

5) We have accomplished a lot in the last few months! We wondered if you could provide us with some feedback regarding your experience in participating in this study. This was the first time that many of us had undertaken a Delphi survey of any kind. Although some of us had participated in a mail-out Delphi survey, we had not previously been involved in an Internet-based Delphi survey.

We have included a brief Feedback Questionnaire on the website for you to complete. We would be delighted to obtain some feedback about your experience of being involved in this project. Your feedback will help us to improve our approach to future similar projects.

We plan summarizing the demographic and professional characteristics of participants, along with the feedback we receive from you. We will send you an email to let you know when this information is added to the project website (likely early to mid-September).

Again, our heartfelt thanks to all of you who contributed to this Delphi study, and helped to make it such an interesting and informative project.