The descriptive and analytic results of surveys often provide critical insights into provider, patient, and system-wide issues that affect healthcare outcomes. Members of the Center have expertise in the development, refinement, and administration of both traditional "paper" and electronic online surveys. The use of online surveys allows for the efficient and rapid administration of surveys with unique designs, including interactive surveys with "conditional logic," surveys with color images, and surveys with embedded video clips. The Center has developed electronic, up-to-date provider databases, and has developed techniques to quickly generate random provider cohorts of any size to fit the sampling framework specified for individual surveys.

The Center has special expertise in developing surveys that elicit provider knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs (KAB) about diagnostic and medical decision-making, and can design surveys that link individual provider "KAB Profiles" to patterns of care. This powerful information not only provides a "description of the waterfront" about the process of care for different medical conditions, but also allows for the development of tailored interventions aimed at increasing appropriate care by targeting specific identified deficiencies in medical decision-making.

Examples of recent studies include a survey of provider behavior in Barrett's esophagus, a survey of barriers to colorectal cancer screening in primary care, a field survey investigating the impact of patient decision-making on outcomes in acid-related gastrointestinal disorders, a vignette-based survey of experts regarding diagnostic and management decision-making in inflammatory bowel disease, and an online VA provider survey regarding the diagnostic and management approaches to diarrhea and constipation in Veterans [Click Here for Example of Online Survey].