Methods
To better quantify and understand practice variations, we conducted an internet-based survey of clinicians from a range of specialties who treat patients with IH. The survey contained 47 questions, many of which were multiple choice and allowed multiple answers (“select all that apply”). Most questions had free text boxes where comments could be made. An invitation and link to complete this voluntary survey was posted on two listservs of the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology: a Clinical Forum Digest as well as a listserv for the Vascular Anomalies Special Interest Group. In addition, email invitations were sent to personal contacts in dermatology, cardiology, plastic surgery, pediatric otolaryngology, pediatric ophthalmology, and general pediatrics. Forwarding and sharing of the survey link to appropriate providers was encouraged. In addition, if a provider was not the best person to complete the survey, they were encouraged to forward the invitation to the person or discipline who treats the most patients with IH at that institution. Multiple responses per institution were encouraged. Because the survey link was posted on listservs and liberally forwarded, we cannot determine the number of clinicians who received or saw the link. Thus, the response rate is unknown. The survey was created and administered using REDCap.17 The survey was active from October 2021 until May 2022. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze results. No protected health information was obtained. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina (USA).