Are you ready for a new development in the GRADEpro tool? A few months ago Evidence Prime implemented PanelVoice, an add-on to GRADEpro that supports panel groups during the guideline development process and facilitates online and asynchronous decision making.
What is PanelVoice about?
After a testing period PanelVoice 2.0 is ready for launch.With a few clicks in the PanelVoice module a methodologist can send emails with voting forms to all panel members. Recipients are able to provide their answers as well as enter their comments to particular recommendation sections. Forms can be filled asynchronously (every panel member in his own time) and sent back to the methodologist. Clashing personalities and even respect among your panel experts can sometimes cause judgments to be biased. For this reason, PanelVoice lets you gather information anonymously and provides final results only to the methodologist. The PanelVoice module allows a methodologist to easily provide panel members with proposed judgments, type of recommendation and even predefined recommendation text. You can organize your panel meeting time as efficiently as possible and set specific periods for discussion and making decisions. Sometimes meetings prove to be too short to discuss all the scheduled items. PanelVoice allows you to complete a part of the meeting online, e.g. do an assessment of evidence through email forms and then decide on the final recommendation during in-person meetings. PanelVoice can also be set to run only for particular questions, like those which were left unresolved due to lack of time during a regular panel meeting. The GRADEpro system with PanelVoice module automatically gathers and calculates all the results for you. At all times, you remain informed of how many panel members submitted their forms and the current results. PanelVoice also makes it easy for you to send email reminders to those who didn’t respond.
Summary of new functionalities:
- New interface – PanelVoice introduces a new interface for managing the process. A short introduction opens at the first launch of the module to familiarize the user with the new design. The administrator starts sending by clicking “send” in one question and during the sending process is able to add multiple other questions to it.
- Fitting the process to user needs – PanelVoice gives full control over the process of running a panel to the administrator. PanelVoice forms can include any and all parts of the EtD with both proposed answers (panel members answer agree/disagree) or full-scale judgement. Additionally, PanelVoice can be started in any stage of the process (Assessment, Type of Recommendation or Recommendation). E.g. the panel is able to make a judgement “in person” and use PanelVoice only for shaping the final recommendation text.
- Test sending – a new functionality allowing the administrator to send a “pilot” version of a form before the “real” voting form is sent to the panel. This can be used for various reasons, including: presenting a form to the panel, asking chosen experts about the completeness of the research evidence before sending the “real” form, etc.
- Iterations (rounds of voting) of obtaining feedback – PanelVoice allows the administrator to repeat any stage of the process. An unlimited number of consecutive iterations are possible. We call those iterations of the process the “rounds of voting” or just “rounds”. The leader of a panel can introduce changes to the EtD table after the initial round, based on feedback from the group, and then resend a “corrected” version for approval. The record of all “rounds” is kept in a new HISTORY functionality (described below).
- History tab – Introducing iterations of voting requires that the panel administrator is able to return to a particular “round” of voting from the past. PanelVoice includes a “History” tab, which allows the administrator to view the sent form and all panel members’ comments from any round of the process.
- Real Time Panel Member administration – PanelVoice introduces the possibility of adding and removing panel members at any stage of the process, which was previously not possible. This includes removing because of a conflict of interest (integrated with CoI module in GRADEpro). Panel Members can participate in particular rounds of the process, provide feedback only in chosen questions, etc.
- Manually adding results for a panel member – PanelVoice allows the administrator to generate a link to a PanelVoice form for any panel member. This can be used to enter data for a panel member who provided feedback e.g. in a Word document or mail. Additionally, the administrator is able to generate a link to the form for any panel member who reports not receiving a link, without requiring GRADEpro support help.
- The Voting Matrix – A new form of panel overview is available. The voting matrix presents a master view of Panel Members in columns and questions in rows. It presents information about the answering progress for particular members, conflicted members, and allows sending reminders to chosen people.
- The administrator is able to choose between the presentation of summarized voting results in percent (%) or absolute values (N).
- “I don’t know” option in forms – users are able to not answer in forms with a predefined answer. They can choose the “I don’t know” option. This was introduced, as sometimes panel members are able to answer only some part of an EtD and don’t have the required knowledge to answer another part. We allow them to abstain from answering.
- Email attachments – the administrator is able to add files from the computer’s hard drive to a message sent to his panel (limit 10 MB). Multiple files may be added.
- Hiding Voting Results – After the process has ended, the administrator may want to present the EtD, but “hide” some information related to the process. With a new view icon we allow the administrator to hide any functionalities related to panel voice for each question separately, and to clearly mark that the question is completed and the final form of the recommendation is being presented.
- Sending to users with Conflict of Interest – The administrator is able to decide during sending to override any blocks for a panel member due to his conflicted status.
Be the first
At the moment, the module is available for preview on our PUBLIC TEST SERVER. For official public release you need to wait till approx. November, 1st, but if you are really interested in this new add-on to GRADEpro, you can test it via our PUBLIC TEST SERVER.For users who have NEVER USED our PUBLIC TEST SERVER:
- Go to: https://qa.gdt.evidenceprime.com/app/
- Create a new account. This is a separate server so you can use your standard email for accessing the regular GRADEpro. Your projects on the public test server are separate from the regular server!
- Ask our Head of Product Development, Bart (bart.dietl@evidenceprime.com)to activate PanelVoice for you on the public test server.
For users who have ALREADY USED our PUBLIC TEST SERVER: log-in to your account on https://qa.gdt.evidenceprime.com/app/PanelVoice 2.0 can be used only on projects in which the older version of PanelVoice has not been started. This was done to avoid confusion in groups which already started the process in the former PanelVoice. To test the new PanelVoice 2.0 please use a project in which the PanelVoice process has not been started or create a duplicate of a project (creating a duplicate restarts the PanelVoice process in a project).We are eager to hear your opinions on this new development.You are welcome to enter the server and try the new functionalities for yourself before they become available on the regular GRADEpro server.Please send your feedback and impressions on this to: info@guidelinedevelopment.org or to Bart: bart.dietl@evidenceprime.comCheck details of our products at www.gradeapps.com.