Were the interventions clearly defined? 2 = clearly defined interventions are applied with a standardized protocol; 1 = clearly defined interventions are applied but the application protocol is not standardized; 0 = intervention and/or application protocol are poor or not defined.
Clinical studies on transfusion support in trauma need to be hypothesis driven with clearly defined interventions, defined populations for study, meaningful outcomes, specific capture of treatment-related toxicities, and a sufficient follow-up period.
Conclusions: Strengths of the study were: ITS design, according to standardized quality criteria (i.e., at least three data points before and three data points after intervention; clearly defined intervention point); pragmatic approach, with good external validity; promotion of effective good practices.
Case management is rather a generic concept than a clearly defined intervention strategy [ 5].
Acupuncture explored in clinical trials is often reported as if it were a clearly defined intervention, which can be taken at face value.
We will exclude studies that either do not include a comparison group or, in the case of before-and-after studies, interrupted-time-series studies and repeated measures studies, that do not have a clearly defined intervention timeframe.
Though for many clearly defined medical interventions there is an accepted standard for outcome quality, this is not true for the rehabilitation of headache sufferers.
Therefore, in order to accurately assess whether yoga can be an effective component of smoking cessation treatments, there is a strong need for randomized controlled clinical trials with larger sample sizes, clearly defined yoga interventions, longer follow ups, and efficient measures of compliance and adherence.
Finally, translating the models into interventions with a clearly defined set of intervention activities and guidelines and testing their efficacy in rigorous clinical trials will be necessary to confirm or disconfirm empirical claims.
We note that designs that are better suited to the evaluation of clearly defined and static interventions may be adopted without giving sufficient attention to the challenges associated with the dynamic nature of improvement interventions and their interactions with contextual factors.
It is especially well-suited to dealing with the dynamic, iteratively evolving nature of improvement work, in contrast with methods more oriented towards statistical hypothesis-testing relating to clearly defined and bounded interventions.
