Procedure
APPENDIX
Participants accessed an online platform, created by a website developer (CT) for the purpose of the study. After obtaining consent, they were asked to provide relevant demographic and clinical information about themselves (profession, age, gender, work environment, country of employment, years of overall experience and years of palliative care experience).They then reviewed five patient summaries (‘vignettes’), containing relevant prognostic information (see Appendix After reviewing each vignette:
Participants were asked to estimate the probability that the patient would survive the next 2 weeks (estimate on a 0%–100% scale; 0% ‘certain to die’ to 100% ‘certain survival’).Participants were then provided with advice (a probability estimate [i.e., 50%, 75% or 90%]) with the perceived source of advice varying depending on study arm.Participants were asked to provide a final probability estimate.The study website, procedures and vignettes were piloted on September 2020 by four clinicians working in the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department, UCL.