There was no evidence that patient health was improved or that the cost of care was reduced .
This review shows that multifaceted interventions based on educational meetings to increase implementation of clinical guidelines may improve some outcomes of professional practice but do not improve patient health or reduce cost of care .
These findings are comparable with results among other health professions
QUESTION What is the effectiveness of strategies to increase the implementation of physiotherapy clinical guidelines ?
Testing the effectiveness of an innovative information package on practitioner reported behaviour and beliefs: The UK Chiropractors, Osteopaths and Musculoskeletal Physiotherapists Low back pain ManagemENT (COMPLeMENT) trial [ISRCTN77245761]
Background Low back pain ( LBP ) is a common and costly problem . Initiatives design ed to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate healthcare for LBP include printed evidence -based clinical guidelines . The three professional groups of chiropractic , osteopathy and musculoskeletal physiotherapy in the UK share common ground with their approaches to managing LBP and are amongst those targeted by LBP guidelines . Even so , many seem unaware that such guidelines exist . Furthermore , the behaviour of at least some of these practitioners differs from that recommended in these guidelines .Few r and omised controlled trials evaluating printed information as an intervention to change practitioner behaviour have utilised a no-intervention control . All these trials have used a cluster design and most have method ological flaws . None specifically focus upon practitioner behaviour towards LBP patients . Studies that have investigated other strategies to change practitioner behaviour with LBP patients have produced conflicting results . Although numerous LBP guidelines have been developed worldwide , there is a paucity of data on whether their dissemination actually changes practitioner behaviour . Primarily because of its low unit cost , sending printed information to large numbers of practitioners is an attractive dissemination and implementation strategy . The effect size of such a strategy , at an individual practitioner level , is likely to be small . However , if large numbers of practitioners are targeted , this strategy might achieve meaningful changes at a population level . Methods The primary aim of this prospect i ve , pragmatic r and omised controlled trial is to test the short-term effectiveness ( six-months following intervention ) of a directly-posted information package on the reported clinical behaviour ( primary outcome ) , attitudes and beliefs of UK chiropractors , osteopaths and musculoskeletal physiotherapists . We sought to r and omly allocate a combined sample of 1,800 consenting practitioners to receive either the information package ( intervention arm ) or no information above that gained during normal practice ( control arm ) . We collected question naire data at baseline and six-months post-intervention . The analysis of the primary outcome will assess between-arm differences of proportions of responses to questions on recommendations about activity , work and bed-rest , that fall within categories previously defined by an expert consensus exercise as either ' guideline -consistent ' and ' guideline -inconsistent '
There was no evidence that patient health was improved or that the cost of care was reduced .
This review shows that multifaceted interventions based on educational meetings to increase implementation of clinical guidelines may improve some outcomes of professional practice but do not improve patient health or reduce cost of care .
These findings are comparable with results among other health professions
QUESTION What is the effectiveness of strategies to increase the implementation of physiotherapy clinical guidelines ?