In this article we describe challenges that emerged during the process of implementing the study design and discuss resolutions strategies to help overcome these issues.
Theoretical limitations of the study are a) documentation of pulmonary shunt by means of pulmonary catheterization was not implemented in the study design, b) fundamental differences of tetrapod vertebrates compared to humans regarding prone or supine position in lung injury models have not been described in literature.
SS designed and implemented the study, synthesized the analysis plan, analyzed the data and led the writing of the article.
LCM design and implemented the study, helped synthesize the analysis plan and assisted with the writing of the article.
JYL assisted with design, implemented the study and assisted with data analysis and manuscript writing.
We implemented the study using the Dillman Tailored Design Method [ 22], a detail-oriented survey implementation method that relies on empirically documented techniques for maximizing response rate.
FKYW designed, implemented the study and drafted the manuscript, JC, CS and SM performed the statistical analysis, drafted the results part of the manuscript, SKFT participated in the design and implementation of the study and helped to draft the manuscript.
Victor E. Pollak is Founder, Member of the Board of Directors, owner of stock, and full-time employee of MIQS, Inc. Jonathan A. Lorch is owner of stock of MIQS, Inc. VEP designed the medical content of the database, designed and implemented the study (with JAL) and interpreted the data (with JAL and RS).
