AUDIT OR RESEARCH

AUDIT OR RESEARCH?

Health professionals are expected to undertake audit and service evaluation as part of quality assurance. These usually involve minimal additional risk, burden or intrusion for partici pants. It is important to determine at an early stage whether a project is audit or research, and sometimes that is not as easy as it seems. T he decision will determine the framework in which the study is undertaken. In the UK, the Health Research Authority (HRA) has developed a decision tool to help decide whether your project is classified as research (http://www .hra-decisiontools.org.uk/research/). This tool crystallises the di ff erentiation between audit and research to three overarching questions: 1 Are the participants in your study randomised to di ff erent groups? 2 Does your study protocol demand changing treatment/ care/services from accepted standards for any of the patients/service users involved? 3 Is your study designed to produce generalisable or trans - ferable findings? - Although the first two questions are simple to comprehend, the third can create some confusion at times. The HRA states that, in this context, ‘generalisable’ means the findings can be reliably extrapolated from the study to a br oader population of patients/service users and/or applied to settings or con - - texts other than those in which they were tested. The majority of audits can be assumed to be hypothesis generating as they would require subsequent prospective testing in a new popula - tion before findings could be considered as new ‘evidence’ – as . The such they do not fulfil this generalisability criterion. Finally , in this context, ‘transferable’ means that the findings of a qualita - tiv e study can be assumed to be applicable to a similar context or setting. Most qualitative studies are not usually generalisable - but can quite often be considered to be transferable. Further useful information on classifying your proposed project can be found in the HRA leaflet ‘Di ff er entiating clinical audit, service evaluation, research and usual practice/surveil - lance work in pub lic health’ (http://www .hra-decisiontools. org.uk/research/docs/DefiningResearchTable_Oct2017-1. pdf). -

How to review a journal article and determine • its value

AUDIT OR RESEARCH?

Health professionals are expected to undertake audit and service evaluation as part of quality assurance. These usually involve minimal additional risk, burden or intrusion for partici pants. It is important to determine at an early stage whether a project is audit or research, and sometimes that is not as easy as it seems. T he decision will determine the framework in which the study is undertaken. In the UK, the Health Research Authority (HRA) has developed a decision tool to help decide whether your project is classified as research (http://www .hra-decisiontools.org.uk/research/). This tool crystallises the di ff erentiation between audit and research to three overarching questions: 1 Are the participants in your study randomised to di ff erent groups? 2 Does your study protocol demand changing treatment/ care/services from accepted standards for any of the patients/service users involved? 3 Is your study designed to produce generalisable or trans - ferable findings? - Although the first two questions are simple to comprehend, the third can create some confusion at times. The HRA states that, in this context, ‘generalisable’ means the findings can be reliably extrapolated from the study to a br oader population of patients/service users and/or applied to settings or con - - texts other than those in which they were tested. The majority of audits can be assumed to be hypothesis generating as they would require subsequent prospective testing in a new popula - tion before findings could be considered as new ‘evidence’ – as . The such they do not fulfil this generalisability criterion. Finally , in this context, ‘transferable’ means that the findings of a qualita - tiv e study can be assumed to be applicable to a similar context or setting. Most qualitative studies are not usually generalisable - but can quite often be considered to be transferable. Further useful information on classifying your proposed project can be found in the HRA leaflet ‘Di ff er entiating clinical audit, service evaluation, research and usual practice/surveil - lance work in pub lic health’ (http://www .hra-decisiontools. org.uk/research/docs/DefiningResearchTable_Oct2017-1. pdf). -

How to review a journal article and determine • its value

AUDIT OR RESEARCH?

Health professionals are expected to undertake audit and service evaluation as part of quality assurance. These usually involve minimal additional risk, burden or intrusion for partici pants. It is important to determine at an early stage whether a project is audit or research, and sometimes that is not as easy as it seems. T he decision will determine the framework in which the study is undertaken. In the UK, the Health Research Authority (HRA) has developed a decision tool to help decide whether your project is classified as research (http://www .hra-decisiontools.org.uk/research/). This tool crystallises the di ff erentiation between audit and research to three overarching questions: 1 Are the participants in your study randomised to di ff erent groups? 2 Does your study protocol demand changing treatment/ care/services from accepted standards for any of the patients/service users involved? 3 Is your study designed to produce generalisable or trans - ferable findings? - Although the first two questions are simple to comprehend, the third can create some confusion at times. The HRA states that, in this context, ‘generalisable’ means the findings can be reliably extrapolated from the study to a br oader population of patients/service users and/or applied to settings or con - - texts other than those in which they were tested. The majority of audits can be assumed to be hypothesis generating as they would require subsequent prospective testing in a new popula - tion before findings could be considered as new ‘evidence’ – as . The such they do not fulfil this generalisability criterion. Finally , in this context, ‘transferable’ means that the findings of a qualita - tiv e study can be assumed to be applicable to a similar context or setting. Most qualitative studies are not usually generalisable - but can quite often be considered to be transferable. Further useful information on classifying your proposed project can be found in the HRA leaflet ‘Di ff er entiating clinical audit, service evaluation, research and usual practice/surveil - lance work in pub lic health’ (http://www .hra-decisiontools. org.uk/research/docs/DefiningResearchTable_Oct2017-1. pdf). -

How to review a journal article and determine • its value