Badran, Hani (2014).  Content validation of the information assessment method for delivery of educational material: a mixed methods study. McGill Family Medicine Studies Online, 09: e05.

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Abstract

Context: The delivery of educational material constitutes an opportunity to engage Family Physicians (FPs) in online continuing education. The Information Assessment Method (IAM) allows FPs to report the clinical relevance, cognitive impact, use, and expected patient health benefits of clinical information received by email. About 10,000 Canadian physicians and pharmacists use IAM within accredited continuing education programs; however, IAM has not been fully content validated for the delivery of educational material.

Objectives: Study the content validity of IAM (relevance and representativeness of IAM items) for the delivery of educational material.

Design: Mixed methods convergent design. Quantitative part: Measure the relevance of IAM items. Participants and setting: Canadian Medical Association members who use IAM. Data collection: 234,194 ratings using IAM were collected in 2012. Data analysis: Descriptive statistics to calculate the relevance of IAM items with respect to their main construct. Qualitative part: Evaluate the representativeness of IAM items. Participants and setting: 15 FPs from McGill University. Data collection: Semi-structured face-to-face interview. Data analysis: Inductive-deductive thematic analysis to assess the representativeness of IAM items within each construct. Mixing Part: Results from quantitative and qualitative analyses were reviewed, combined, integrated and then discussed with experts.

Results: The content validity of 21 items was confirmed, while two items were excluded. A new validated version was generated (IAM-2014).

Conclusion: A tool to assess the clinical information received by physicians and pharmacists within online continuing education programs was validated. Consequently, information providers will be able to use valid results and feedback from FPs, to improve their product.