Randomized controlled trial involving 40 pediatric primary care clinicians with high rates of diagnosing and treating middle ear infections. Ten enrolled clinicians will be randomly assigned to each of 4 arms for a three-month trial: 1) personalized education and feedback about proper ear infection diagnosis; 2) use of a digital otoscope; 3) both education and feedback plus use of a digital otoscope; 4) control (no intervention).
Randomized controlled trial involving 40 pediatric primary care clinicians with rates of otitis media diagnosis and antibiotic prescribing in the top quartile of the entire clinician population of the Pediatric Physicians' Organization at Children's over the previous 12 months who consent to enroll in the trial after direct outreach from the study team. Ten enrolled clinicians will be randomly assigned to each of 4 arms for a three-month intervention period: 1) personalized education and feedback about proper otitis media diagnosis following criteria from the American Academy of Pediatrics; 2) use of the Wispr digital otoscope; 3) both education and feedback plus use of the Wispr digital otoscope; 4) control (no intervention).
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
DIAGNOSTIC
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
40
Education about proper otitis media diagnosis following criteria from the American Academy of Pediatrics with personalized performance feedback on otitis media diagnosis and treatment rates delivered via email
Use of the Wispr digital otoscope to diagnose otitis media in place of a traditional visual otoscope
Pediatric Physicians' Organization at Children's
Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States
Change in OMTI
Proportion of encounters in children 6-59 months of age with any respiratory diagnosis who are diagnosed with otitis media and treated with a systemic antibiotic.
Time frame: 3 months
Change in overall antibiotic courses prescribed
Courses of systemic antibiotics per 1000 children per year among children 6-59 months of age.
Time frame: 3 months
Change in overall prescribed antibiotic days
Total days of systemic antibiotics per 1000 children per year among children 6-59 months of age.
Time frame: 3 months
Clinician confidence and satisfaction in diagnosing OM and preference for digital versus traditional otoscope
Clinician responses to a pre- and post-intervention surveys regarding confidence in diagnosing otitis media and satisfaction with digital versus traditional otoscope.
Time frame: 3 months
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