European Public Assessment Report (EPAR) summaries for the public: are they fit for purpose? A user-testing study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Apply 'user testing' methodology to test the readability of a European Public Assessment Report (EPAR) summary-which describes how the decision was made by the European Medicines Agency to approve a medicine.

Design

User testing uses mixed methods (questionnaire and semistructured interview), applied iteratively, to assess document performance-can people find and understand key points of information.

Setting and participants

Testing was undertaken with 40 members of the public in four consecutive rounds of 10. Inclusion criteria, matched across rounds, included range of ages and educational attainment.

Tested documents

In round 1 we tested 19 key points of information in a printed version of the EPAR summary for Bondronat (a cancer medicine). This wa

SUBMITTER: Raynor DK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3780304 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature