Table 3 Characteristics of included studies: charts, interviews and interviewers
From: A scoping review of the potential for chart stimulated recall as a clinical research method
First author | How charts were chosen | Topic guide | Average no. of charts per interview | Interview duration | Data analysis | Interviewer (s) background |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ab [25] | Prior to each interview, a list of patients with type 2 diabetes not being prescribed lipid-lowering medication was extracted from the GP’s electronic medical records by the research team. | Open questions on patient, physicians and organisational barriers | 10-27 charts: as many as possible were discussed in an hour | 60mins | Qualitative: Content analysis | Researcher with unspecified background |
Dee [27] | The charts of all patients seen by the physician during half a day of office practice. | Not provided | 12 charts | Not provided | Descriptive (mostly quantitative) | Doctoral researcher in librarian studies |
Guerra [24] | Interviewee asked to pull 10 charts on men >45 yrs. seen in last 2 weeks, without knowing focus of the study | Unstructured probes informed by the Walsh and McPhee Systems Model of Clinical Preventative Care | 2.3 charts | 30–45 min | Qualitative: Grounded theory techniques | Medical student |
Guerra [23] | Interviewee asked to pull 10 charts on patients >51 years seen in last week, without knowing focus of the study | 4.3 charts | 30–45 min | Qualitative: Grounded theory techniques | Medical student and physician | |
Jennett [29] | Standardised patient visit, with chart then used to stimulate recall | Standardised protocol on the rationale for clinical choices, conditions ruled out. | 1 chart | 20 min | Qualitative: Content analysis | Nurse |
Lockyer [28] | The first neonatal case that participating physicians prescribed phototherapy for during the study period. | Closed and open questions on awareness and acceptance of guidelines, and preferred information sources | 1 chart | 10–15 min | Descriptive (mostly quantitative) | Neonatal nurse |
Rochefort [26] | 2 cases of hypertension newly started on antihypertensive therapy (one in accordance with guidelines and one not) were purposely selected from the interviewee’s electronic health record database by research team | Literature informed questions on the general approach to hypertension and rationale in chosen cases | 2 charts | Not provided | Qualitative: Content analysis | “Trained interviewer” |
Sinnott [13] | Interviewee asked to pull 3-5 charts on patients with multiple long-term conditions and 5 + medications, seen the day of or day preceding the interview | Literature informed prompts on management of multimorbidity in primary care | 2.5 charts | 40–50 min | Grounded theory with constant comparison | General practitioner |