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Herbert R1, Kaizik M2, Hancock M3, Sharma S4, Moseley A4
1Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA), Sydney, Australia, 2University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 3Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, 4University of Sydney, Institute for Musculoskeletal Health, Sydney, Australia
Background: For nearly 20 years the PEDro database (www.pedro.org.au) has supported clinical decision making by providing physiotherapists with rapid access to randomised trials, systematic reviews and practice guidelines relevant to the practice of physiotherapy. Over 2 million searches of the PEDro database are conducted every year. PEDro is designed to support clinical decisions about treatment - it does not support decisions about the selection and interpretation of diagnostic tests. Until now there have not been any comprehensive databases of studies of diagnostic test accuracy relevant to the practice of physiotherapy. DiTA is a new database designed to fill that gap. It has been designed to help physiotherapists find reports of studies of the accuracy of diagnostic tests relevant to physiotherapy practice.
Purpose: This presentation describes the procedures used to develop the DiTA database. It also provides an overview of the existing studies of diagnostic test accuracy relevant to physiotherapy.
Methods: A sensitive search was conducted with the objective of identifying all, or nearly all, published reports of studies of the accuracy of diagnostic tests used by physiotherapists. To be eligible for inclusion, studies of diagnostic test accuracy needed to investigate both a pathology and patients that a physiotherapist could assess in clinical practice. They also needed to investigate index tests that a physiotherapist would perform themselves (rather than tests they might order, such as radiographs). To analyse the characteristics of studies of diagnostic test accuracy relevant to physiotherapy we extracted data from a random sample of the studies. Bibliographic data of the studies identified from the search were entered into the DiTA database. DiTA is modelled on the PEDro database. It has been constructed using similar procedures, is built on the same platform and has a similar look and feel to PEDro. Like PEDro, DiTA has been made freely available online.
Results: The search yielded 25,214 titles. Screening identified 984 reports that met the inclusion criteria. The studies were relevant to most subdisciplines of physiotherapy. Of 100 randomly selected reports, the most frequently studied subdisciplines were “musculoskeletal” (77/100) and “orthopaedics” (38/100); the most frequently studied diagnoses were “fractures” and “joint pathologies” (both 12/100); and the most frequently studied body parts were “head/neck” (15/100), “chest” (13/100) and “lumbar spine, sacro-iliac joint or pelvis” (13/100). Most studies were of “physical examination” (62/100); fewer studies were of “questions or questionnaires” (44/100) and “health technologies” (21/100).
Conclusion(s): There is a large body of research into the accuracy of diagnostic tests used by physiotherapists. The studies are likely to be of most use to musculoskeletal and orthopaedic physiotherapists.
Implications: PEDro's new partner, DiTA, will help physiotherapists find and access information about the accuracy of diagnostic tests. This information can be used to select which tests to use, and to assist with the interpretation of the findings of diagnostic tests.
Keywords: diagnosis, diagnostic tests, database
Funding acknowledgements: Seed funding for the DiTA database has been provide by the Australian NHMRC.
Purpose: This presentation describes the procedures used to develop the DiTA database. It also provides an overview of the existing studies of diagnostic test accuracy relevant to physiotherapy.
Methods: A sensitive search was conducted with the objective of identifying all, or nearly all, published reports of studies of the accuracy of diagnostic tests used by physiotherapists. To be eligible for inclusion, studies of diagnostic test accuracy needed to investigate both a pathology and patients that a physiotherapist could assess in clinical practice. They also needed to investigate index tests that a physiotherapist would perform themselves (rather than tests they might order, such as radiographs). To analyse the characteristics of studies of diagnostic test accuracy relevant to physiotherapy we extracted data from a random sample of the studies. Bibliographic data of the studies identified from the search were entered into the DiTA database. DiTA is modelled on the PEDro database. It has been constructed using similar procedures, is built on the same platform and has a similar look and feel to PEDro. Like PEDro, DiTA has been made freely available online.
Results: The search yielded 25,214 titles. Screening identified 984 reports that met the inclusion criteria. The studies were relevant to most subdisciplines of physiotherapy. Of 100 randomly selected reports, the most frequently studied subdisciplines were “musculoskeletal” (77/100) and “orthopaedics” (38/100); the most frequently studied diagnoses were “fractures” and “joint pathologies” (both 12/100); and the most frequently studied body parts were “head/neck” (15/100), “chest” (13/100) and “lumbar spine, sacro-iliac joint or pelvis” (13/100). Most studies were of “physical examination” (62/100); fewer studies were of “questions or questionnaires” (44/100) and “health technologies” (21/100).
Conclusion(s): There is a large body of research into the accuracy of diagnostic tests used by physiotherapists. The studies are likely to be of most use to musculoskeletal and orthopaedic physiotherapists.
Implications: PEDro's new partner, DiTA, will help physiotherapists find and access information about the accuracy of diagnostic tests. This information can be used to select which tests to use, and to assist with the interpretation of the findings of diagnostic tests.
Keywords: diagnosis, diagnostic tests, database
Funding acknowledgements: Seed funding for the DiTA database has been provide by the Australian NHMRC.
Topic: Research methodology & knowledge translation
Ethics approval required: No
Institution: The local ethics committee would not accept ...
Ethics committee: ... an application for this project
Reason not required: The research was conducted on a database, not on people or animals.
All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.
