Annals of emergency medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
A Randomized Trial Testing the Effect of Narrative Vignettes Versus Guideline Summaries on Provider Response to a Professional Organization Clinical Policy for Safe Opioid Prescribing.
Clinical guidelines are known to be underused by practitioners. In response to the challenges of treating pain amid a prescription opioid epidemic, the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) published an evidence-based clinical policy for opioid prescribing in 2012. Evidence-based narratives, an effective method of communicating health information in a variety of settings, offer a novel strategy for disseminating guidelines to physicians and engaging providers with clinical evidence. We compare whether narrative vignettes embedded in the ACEP daily e-newsletter improved dissemination of the clinical policy to ACEP members, and engagement of members with the clinical policy, compared with traditional summary text. ⋯ Among a national sample of emergency physicians, narrative vignettes outperformed traditional guideline text in promoting engagement with an evidence-based clinical guideline related to opioid prescriptions.