All respondents to surveys are healthcare professionals on the appropriate professional register and have been validated on registration. Respondent identity is confirmed by unique user name and password protected systems.

An internal quality assurance system is applied to all questionnaires. When necessary, questionnaires are pre-tested prior to launch. Confidentiality is assured to the respondents and all Data Protection legislation and the MRS code of conduct is observed. The online questionnaires are secure and protected from unauthorised individuals.

All questionnaire responses are time and date stamped and questionnaire responses where the time taken is outside the norm for the study are discarded. A fully transparent audit trail is integral to the software.

Results analysis is by the automated proprietary software Q which has executed over a million transactions without loss or corruption.

Free text analysis is carried out by senior appropriately trained and experienced individuals or by the use of appropriate software programmes.