Audit and feedback is an effective quality improvement strategy that provides health professionals with quantitative summaries of their clinical performance. However, its success varies widely: even though the intervention produces small but significant improvements in practice, evidence shows a median improvement of 4.3% varying from a 9% decrease in performance to a 70% increase [click for more information]. For that reason, understanding better why and how audit and feedback works is key in advancing the field and making the best of this useful tool.
The 4th Annual International Symposium on Advancing the Science and Impact of Audit & Feedback aims to achieve a better understanding of the intervention, as well as share current knowledge and prepare health professionals, researchers, policy makers and other stakeholders to design, implement and evaluate audit and feedback. This year the Symposium will take place in Amsterdam on the 23rd of May and will include a workshop on the evaluation of audit & feedback delivered by our director, Professor Craig Ramsay, and HSRU’s TRiaDS statistician Beatriz Goulao. It is still possible to register here.
In HSRU, we have a long history of studying audit and feedback. The RAPiD study, published in 2016, randomised all dental practices in Scotland to different formats of audit and feedback. The study found a decrease of 6% in dentist’s antibiotic prescription rates when comparing individualised feedback versus no feedback. This was maximised by adding a message synthesizing and reiterating national guidance recommendations.
Currently, HSRU is involved in different projects related to audit and feedback in dentistry through the TRiaDS programme. Dr Eilidh Duncan has recently been awarded a THIS Institute fellowship to further study audit and feedback and the potential to maximise its impact.