Appendix D Acknowledgments

This study was supported by Contract 290-02-0016 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Task No. 4. We acknowledge the continuing support of Kenneth Fink, MD, MGA, MPH, Director of the AHRQ Evidence-Based Practice Center (EPC) Program, and Marian James, PhD, the AHRQ Task Order Officer for this project.

The investigators deeply appreciate the considerable support, commitment, and contributions of the EPC team staff at RTI International and the University of North Carolina (UNC). From UNC, we thank EPC Co-Director, Timothy S. Carey, MD, MPH; EPC Literature Search Specialist, B. Lynn Whitener, PhD and Leah Randolph, M.A. and Laura Morgan, M.A Research Assistants. We also express our gratitude to Loraine Monroe, EPC word processing specialist, and Debra Bost, editor at RTI International.

Technical Expert Advisory Group

We also extend our appreciation to the members of our Technical Expert Advisory Group (TEAG), who provided advice and input during our research process. The RTI-UNC EPC team solicited the views of TEAG members from the beginning of the project. TEAG members also provided insights into and reactions to work in progress and advice on substantive issues or possibly overlooked areas of research. TEAG members participated in refining the analytic framework and key questions and discussing the preliminary assessment of the literature, including inclusion/exclusion criteria, and also provided input on the information and categories, including evidence tables. The TEAG was both a substantive resource and a “sounding board” throughout the study. It was also the body from which expertise was formally sought at several junctions. TEAG members are listed below:

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Peer Reviewers

We gratefully acknowledge the following individuals who reviewed the initial draft of this report and provided us with constructive feedback. External reviewers comprised clinicians, researchers, representatives of professional societies, and potential users of the report. We would also like to extend our appreciation to David Atkins, MD, and Susan Meikle, MD MSPH from AHRQ for contributing peer review comments. Our peer review panel also includes all members of the TEAG. Peer review was a separate duty for these individuals and not part of their commitment as TEAG members. All are active professionals in the field. The peer reviewers were asked to provide comments on the content, structure, and format of the evidence report and to complete a checklist. The peer reviewers’ comments and suggestions formed the basis of our revisions to the evidence report. Acknowledgments are made with the explicit statement that this does not constitute endorsement of the report.

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