Comparison of Multi-Round and Real-Time Delphi Survey Methods

September 1, 2021 updated by: Prof. Declan Devane, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

Multi-round Compared to Real-Time Delphi for Consensus in Core Outcome Set (COS) Development: A Randomised Trial

A two-group parallel randomised trial of Delphi survey methods.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Recruiting

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

Aim:

The aim of this trial is to compare a multi-round Delphi survey method with a Real-Time Delphi method on prioritised outcomes included in a core outcome set (COS). This trial is embedded within the COHESION study which is developing a COS for interventions for the treatment of neonatal encephalopathy.

Methods:

Stakeholders (parents/ caregivers of infants diagnosed and treated with neonatal encephalopathy, healthcare providers and researchers) will be randomised using stratified randomisation to take part in either a multi-round or Real-Time Delphi. Stakeholders will rate the importance of the same set of outcomes in both arms. We will compare the prioritised outcomes at the end of both surveys as well as other parameters such as feedback, initial condition and iteration effects.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
180

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

14 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • parents or caregivers of infants that have been diagnosed with and received treatment for neonatal encephalopathy

  • healthcare providers including:

    • neonatal nurse practitioners
    • midwives
    • obstetricians
    • neonatologists/paediatricians
    • neonatal/paediatric neurologists
    • general practitioners who provide long-term care for children with neonatal encephalopathy
    • policymakers
  • researchers/ academics with expertise in neonatal encephalopathy treatment.

Exclusion Criteria:

• participants not meeting the inclusion criteria

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: Real-Time Delphi Method
The Real-Time Delphi Method involves a single-round Delphi survey rating the importance of outcomes for neonatal encephalopathy. Feedback on each outcome (participant's own rating score, rating of the outcome by stakeholder group and overall consensus results for that outcome) will be provided to the participant once they have rated an outcome. They can then modify how they rated the outcome based on this feedback if they wish. Participants can also re-visit and re-rate outcomes as many times as they wish when the survey is live. Duration will span approximately 5 weeks.
Other: Participation in a Delphi survey
Participants will be asked to participate in an online Delphi survey (using one of two randomly allocated methods) to rate the importance of outcomes that should be measured to determine the effect of treatment for neonatal encephalopathy. Outcomes will be prioritised on their importance in a consensus-driven manner.
Active Comparator: Multi-round Delphi Method
The Multi-Round Delphi Method involves a three-round Delphi survey rating the importance of outcomes for neonatal encephalopathy. Feedback on each outcome (participant's own rating score, rating of the outcome by stakeholder group and overall consensus results for that outcome) will be provided to the participant at the end of Round 1 and the end of Round 2. Participants can then modify how they rated the outcome based on feedback, in Rounds 2 and 3, if they wish. Each survey Round will run for 3 weeks approximately. In between survey Rounds, there will be a downtime of approximately 10 days before providing feedback and a further 7 days before starting the next round. Duration will span approximately 14 weeks.
Other: Participation in a Delphi survey
Participants will be asked to participate in an online Delphi survey (using one of two randomly allocated methods) to rate the importance of outcomes that should be measured to determine the effect of treatment for neonatal encephalopathy. Outcomes will be prioritised on their importance in a consensus-driven manner.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Comparison of outcomes prioritised within each survey arm
Time Frame: End of both surveys (i.e. when the Multi-Round Delphi round 3 has finished and when the Real-Time Delphi has finished at the end of week 5).
Comparison of outcomes prioritised by respondents at the end of (i) the Real-time and (ii) multi-round Delphi processes. An outcome is judged 'prioritised' based on the proportion of respondents rating the outcome a 7-9 (inclusive) on a 9-point Likert scale (higher scores = higher importance for inclusion in the COS)
End of both surveys (i.e. when the Multi-Round Delphi round 3 has finished and when the Real-Time Delphi has finished at the end of week 5).

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Feedback Effect
Time Frame: Through study completion, an average of 14 weeks.
The feedback effect will tell if the feedback provided to participants resulted in them amending the rating they have to each outcome on the 9-point scale (higher scores= higher importance for inclusion in the COS)
Through study completion, an average of 14 weeks.
Initial Condition Effect
Time Frame: During the Real-Time Delphi intervention (5 weeks).
The initial condition effect will capture if early participant's rating for each outcome on the 9-point scale ( higher scores= higher importance for inclusion in the COS) differs to rating given by later participants.
During the Real-Time Delphi intervention (5 weeks).
Iteration Effect
Time Frame: Through study completion, an average of 14 weeks.
The iteration effect will determine if there is a difference in how consensus is achieved on prioritising each outcome or not, between the Multi-Round and the Real-Time Delphi survey arms
Through study completion, an average of 14 weeks.
Comparison of outcomes prioritised within each survey arm with the final Core Outcome Set
Time Frame: Through study completion, an average of 1 year.
Comparison of the of outcome headings prioritised at the end of both the Real-Time and Multi-Round Delphi processes with the outcome headings in the final Core Outcome Set.
Through study completion, an average of 1 year.

Other Outcome Measures

Other Outcome Measures

For clinical trials, a planned measurement described in the protocol that is used to determine the effect of an intervention/treatment on participants. For observational studies, a measurement or observation that is used to describe patterns of diseases or traits, or associations with exposures, risk factors, or treatment. Types of outcome measures include primary outcome measure and secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Attrition rates
Time Frame: Attrition rates will be recorded at the end of round 1 (week 3) and round 2 (week 9) in the Multi-Round Delphi and at weeks 2 and 4 in the Real-Time Delphi arm.
Comparison of attrition rates between multi-round and Real-Time Delphi arms.
Attrition rates will be recorded at the end of round 1 (week 3) and round 2 (week 9) in the Multi-Round Delphi and at weeks 2 and 4 in the Real-Time Delphi arm.
Frequency of re-visiting the Real-Time Delphi arm
Time Frame: This will be measured when a participant visits the Real-Time Delphi survey and rates the outcomes fully for a second time (between the start of week 1 and the end of week 5).
Monitoring how often the Real-Time Delphi was re-visited by participants
This will be measured when a participant visits the Real-Time Delphi survey and rates the outcomes fully for a second time (between the start of week 1 and the end of week 5).
Usefulness, Satisfaction and Ease of Use of each survey arm
Time Frame: End of both surveys (i.e. when the Multi-Round Delphi round 3 (week 14) has finished and when the Real-Time Delphi has finished at the end of week 5)
Participants will be asked in a short questionnaire how they found answering each survey using a modified Usefulness, Satisfaction and Ease of use questionnaire on a 7-point Likert Scale where 1= Strongly Disagree and 7=Strongly Agree.
End of both surveys (i.e. when the Multi-Round Delphi round 3 (week 14) has finished and when the Real-Time Delphi has finished at the end of week 5)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
Health Research Board, Ireland

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Declan Devane, PhD, Health Research Board - Trials Methodology Research Network

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
August 13, 2021

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
February 7, 2022

Study Completion (Anticipated)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
February 7, 2022

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
July 2, 2020

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
July 9, 2020

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
July 15, 2020

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
September 2, 2021

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
September 1, 2021

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
September 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • NUIreland-COHESION

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

No

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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