No magic bullets: a systematic review of 102 trials of interventions to improve professional practice

Table 2: Breakdown of comparison groups by type of intervention in the 102 trials*
	Intervention; no. of trials
	Cont	Educ	Conf	Out	Lead	Pat	Aud	Rem	Mar	Mul	Loc
Educ	9	3
Conf	8	2	1
Out	3	1	0	0
Lead	4	1	0	0	1
Pat	4	0	0	0	0	0
Aud	21	4	2	0	1	1	7
Rem	35	1	4	0	0	2	4	3
Mar	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Mul	11	2	2	0	0	2	2	2	0	2
Loc	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0

*Con = control, Educ = educational materials, Out = outreach visits, Lead = use of local opinion leaders, Pat = patient-mediated interventions, Aud = audit and feedback, Rem = Reminders, Mar = marketing, Mul = multifaceted interventions, Loc = local consensus processes. Numbers in the last column of each row represent trials in which two interventions in the category (type) were compared (e.g., for educational materials, glossy [commercial] material v. academic-style material).