Professional Intervention: Local Opinion Leaders

Definition: Use of providers nominated by their colleagues as ‘educationally influential’. The investigators must have explicitly stated that their colleagues identified the opinion leaders.)

Effectiveness: One high quality review (Thomas) and one key review (Doumit) were identified. One key review (Doumit) found the use of local opinion leaders alone or combined with other interventions to be generally effective for improving appropriate care outcomes. One high quality review (Thomas) had an insufficient number of studies to draw any conclusions about the effectiveness of the intervention on appropriate care outcomes.

Summary of Overall Findings from Reviews: 1/1 high quality/key reviews with a sufficient number of studies to draw conclusions found this intervention to be generally effective.

Summary of Findings Related to Prescribing: No high quality or key reviews were identified.