Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Every year, more than 15 patients undergo cardiac surgery in Australia and New Zealand. The guidelines were developed using a Delphi consensus as well as a systematic literature review. The Delphi method is a survey among an expert panel in an iterative structured manner.
Invitations to participate, along with information on the consensus project were distributed through electronic mailing lists of the relevant bodies:. Clinicians were eligible to participate in this study if they were specialists holding an Australasian specialist qualification in cardiac surgery, cardiac anaesthesia or intensive care or a combination thereof , and primarily practising in Australia or New Zealand.
This ensured that the consensus obtained would be particularly valid in this geographic region and its health care systems. Seventy-nine clinicians participated as expert panellists in the study. The breakdown by clinical specialty and location is shown in Table 1. Statements were presented to the panellists for rating on a 5-point Likert scale strongly disagree, disagree, neither disagree nor agree, agree, strongly agree.
Rating was compulsory for each statement. In addition, panellists could suggest categories and items in the comment section for each item. These were included as new items in the subsequent round. An investigator meeting via teleconference was held after each round. The investigators reviewed the results and free text comments in anonymised fashion and determined changes to wording of items by majority vote. Significant changes in the wording of items were re-presented to the panellists in a subsequent round.
Likewise, thematically similar items could be combined and re-polled. Items could be accepted without re-polling if the change in wording was considered minor and was considered not to be changing the notion of the item. The analysis of each round was subsequently presented to the panellists in anonymised form along with their own answers and additional or modified items via email.
