Review Matrix

– How Can Matrices Be Combined and Why Should They Be?

– Use the text below to answer this question

The Matrix Method has been described as the activity by one person who is reviewing the literature on a specific topic. This method can be extended to use by two or more people with two or more topics. Here is an example. Suppose a clinical outcomes research group in a large, managed care organization needed to review the literature about a medical device that became available on the market 10 years ago. The goal of this team was to understand what the research has to say about the clinical effectiveness of the medical device for use by patients. The organizations clinical board was interested in possibly recommending the device to clinicians in its network. The research team consisted of a physician, nurse practitioner, biostatistician, epidemiologist, and consumer advocate. All were accomplished in the use of the Matrix Method; RefWorks, which was their organizations reference management software; and a variety of electronic bibliographic databases such as MEDLINE and CINAHL. Should one of these team members review the literature and summarize the results for the others? What would be the benefit if they all reviewed the literature? If all participated in the review, how would they divide up the work?

The team decided that each of them would review the literature because they all needed to be at the same level of understanding of research about the device. They began by discussing the purpose of the review, then each would apply the Matrix Method separately and compare their progress at these stages: (1) selection of articles, (2) creation of the column topics, (3) completion of the review matrix, and (4) draft of the synthesis. They agreed at the beginning that each reviewer would have a different focus: the physician would concentrate on clinical outcomes and medical factors related to its use, the nurse practitioner would focus on patient factors that contributed to success or failure of the device; the biostatistician would be responsible for evaluating the methods and statistical procedures and explaining the statistical outcomes to the group; the epidemiologist would be concerned about population findings about use in different settings (home, community, nursing home), in different geographic areas, and under other conditions in which the device was used; and the consumer advocate would focus on patient reactions and evaluations about ease of use in everyday life. Team members set about the task separately in identifying articles and creating column topics.

The reason the team members compared their results at four points was to standardize the review. The final selection of articles to be reviewed were those collected by all team members. They realized that some articles might not be relevant to their focus, but all team members would have to summarize each article by its purpose, methods, and relevance to the general purpose. This meant that when one team member described a study, they all were familiar with the content. The discussion of the column topics also reflected all of their input. They used a decision rule of agreeing on general topics such as purpose, methods, description of data collection instruments, methodological design, and statistical procedures.

Then each had a section specific to his or her own focus. Everybody had a final column in which they could record their impression of the study. Each completed the review matrix separately. They went over the results of these review matrices in a discussion section and agreed on the outline and content of the synthesis. Each drafted the synthesis for his/her own focus. The result was a document that reflected all of their investments of time and effort, their expertise, and their focus, and they agreed on the recommendations to the board.

In another example, a class of students took a similar approach when they divided up into teams of five and used the Matrix Method to review the same topic, but worked separately until they came together to prepare the synthesis based on their independently prepared review matrices.

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