This post summarizes a July 16, 2026 PLOS One study that used Nominal Group Technique (NGT) with 22 stakeholders in Tbilisi to choose a disclosure decision aid for adaptation in Georgia (PLOS One). This post shows how to turn short NGT notes, rankings, and adaptation priorities into a reproducible, stakeholder-driven intervention plan and how an automated platform can speed the analysis that normally takes days. Note: this is research-focused synthesis, not clinical advice.
Key Takeaways
This post explains how to synthesize short NGT notes, ranking sheets, and participant recommendations to adapt a disclosure decision aid, and how to reproduce the Georgia study's synthesis using automated tools.
- The July 16, 2026 PLOS One study used NGT in Feb–Mar 2026 with 22 stakeholders (providers 12; people living with HIV 10) to prioritize a disclosure decision aid for adaptation.
- Providers prioritized digital formats for accessibility and scale, while people living with HIV prioritized individual session-based support for trust and emotional safety; the final consensus prioritized the Family disclosure DA.
- Primary adaptation requests were peer educator involvement, legal/rights information, flexible session timing, and confidentiality considerations.
Fast take + source
Fast take: researchers ran two NGT stakeholder sessions (Feb 9–Mar 3, 2026) plus a joint consensus meeting to pick an existing disclosure decision aid for local adaptation; the study was published 16 July 2026 in PLOS One (PLOS One).
- Key divergence: providers ranked digital formats highest; people living with HIV ranked session-based (individual first) highest.
- Final consensus prioritized the Family disclosure DA (individual sessions focused on disclosure to family) for adaptation to Georgia.
Findings snapshot (quick numbers)
| Metric | Value | Source / Note |
|---|---|---|
| Publication date | 16 July 2026 | PLOS One |
| Participants (total) | 22 (providers 12; PLWH 10) | NGT sessions, Feb 9–Mar 3, 2026 |
| Formats reviewed | 9 interventions (session, paper, digital) | Desk review prior to NGT |
| Priority selected | Family disclosure DA (individual session-based) | Final joint consensus prioritized PLWH preferences |
| Adaptation themes | Peer educators; legal info; flexible session timing; confidentiality | From participant recommendations |
What happened (plain English)
What happened: researchers prepared one-page summaries of nine candidate disclosure decision aids, ran two 60-minute NGT sessions, and held a 40-minute joint meeting to prioritize an aid for adaptation, resulting in selection of the Family disclosure DA.
- Researchers prepared one-page summaries of nine candidate disclosure decision aids across three formats: session-based, paper-based, and digital.
- Two 60-minute NGT sessions collected individual idea generation, round-robin sharing, discussion, and independent ranking; providers favored digital tools for accessibility and scalability, while people living with HIV (PLWH) favored individual session-based support for trust and emotional safety.
- Data used for analysis included flip-chart notes, de-identified ranking scores, and rapporteur notes (no verbatim transcripts).
- Analysis approach was descriptive content analysis applied to notes without a formal codebook.
- Primary adaptation requests were peer involvement, legal/rights content, guidance for disclosure to non-HIV healthcare providers, and flexible delivery.
So what for researchers & UX teams: qualitative analysis of disclosure decision aids
Why stakeholder split matters
Why the stakeholder split matters: providers and users often prioritize different constraints, with providers focused on feasibility and scale and users focused on trust and emotional readiness.
Researchers should capture both perspectives early and weight end-user preferences when the intervention targets behavior and wellbeing.
What to extract from NGT notes
What to extract from NGT notes: combine rank scores, clarifying quotes, and adaptation asks into actionable outputs.
Rank scores (quantitative) can show majority preferences and magnitude of difference, clarifying quotes (qualitative) map to themes like trust and privacy, and adaptation asks (actionable) become acceptance criteria for the adapted product.
Limitations to record in your synthesis
What limitations to record in your synthesis: document small sample size, recruitment approach, and data type so readers can judge transferability.
The study had a small sample (n=22) with convenience recruitment, demographic skew (older providers, majority women), and field notes rather than verbatim transcripts, which limits nuance and should be explicitly recorded to guide pilot design and further sampling.
Do more, faster with Evidano
From messy notes to structured evidence
Evidano is an AI-powered qualitative data analysis platform that ingests session notes, ranking spreadsheets, and one-page intervention summaries and auto-extracts theme frequencies, co-occurrence (for example, 'peer' + 'trust'), and segment comparisons (providers vs PLWH).
Evidano can process flip-chart notes and de-identified ranking sheets to produce reproducible theme lists and co-occurrence matrices for product and program teams.
Reproducible ranking + consensus trail
Reproducible ranking and consensus trail: upload ranking sheets and let Evidano generate aggregated score tables and visualizations to show how format preference shifted between groups and across the joint session.
These outputs are useful for funder reports and IRB submissions because they show the audit trail from raw ranks to final priorities.
Rapid adaptation spec
Rapid adaptation spec: Evidano produces a working adaptation checklist and extracts illustrative anonymized quotes for product design and training curricula.
The platform can export a prioritized checklist (peer educator role, legal content modules, session sequencing) and slide-ready summaries for implementation teams.
Transcription, translation, and PII handling
Transcription and translation features: Evidano supports custom dictionaries and PII redaction for transcription and translation workflows when interviews are collected in Georgian or minority languages.
These features help maintain consistency across multilingual datasets and reduce manual cleaning time.
Security & compliance
Security and compliance: Evidano stores customer data encrypted and uses proprietary LLMs tuned for qualitative research; customer data is not used to train third-party models.
These controls are important when handling sensitive HIV-related records and when platforms must meet funder and IRB expectations.
Quick workflow: reproduce this study’s synthesis in 7 steps
This seven-step checklist shows how to reproduce the study's synthesis from raw NGT materials to an adaptation brief.
- 1) Import: upload de-identified flip-chart notes, ranking spreadsheets, and intervention summaries to Evidano.
- 2) Auto-transcribe/normalize: run transcription and cleaning if you have audio; apply a custom dictionary for local terms.
- 3) Theme extraction: run thematic analysis and frequency counts, and compare providers vs PLWH.
- 4) Ranking audit: import ranking sheet to generate aggregated rank tables and statistical comparisons.
- 5) Quote selection: auto-scan notes for high-salience illustrative quotes tagged by stakeholder type.
- 6) Adaptation spec: export a prioritized checklist (peer elements, legal content, session flow) and a slide-ready summary.
- 7) Pilot-ready package: bundle data, methods appendix, and visuals for IRB and funder submission.
FAQ: qualitative analysis of disclosure decision aids
How do you compare small NGT groups quantitatively?
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Answer: Aggregate rank scores and supplement with frequency counts and illustrative quotes to compare small NGT groups.
Report limitations and triangulate with other data where possible; the Georgia study used de-identified ranking scores and descriptive comparisons rather than formal significance testing.
Can digital tools replace session-based support?
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Answer: Digital tools cannot always replace session-based support because many people living with HIV prioritized individual, trust-based contact early on.
Consider hybrid solutions, such as initial one-on-one support plus a digital follow-up module for scalability, reflecting the divergence observed between providers and PLWH in the study.
Is it safe to store sensitive notes in AI platforms?
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Answer: It can be safe if the platform uses end-to-end encryption and clear model-use policies and does not share customer data to train third-party models.
The Georgia study recommends ensuring encrypted storage and strict model-use and data-sharing policies when handling sensitive HIV-related records.
Wrapping up & next steps
Wrapping up: treat NGT outputs as a hybrid dataset comprising small-n rank data plus qualitative notes and synthesize both systematically to produce an adaptation-ready intervention plan.
- Next move: upload your NGT notes and ranking sheets to Evidano to generate reproducible themes, cross-segment comparisons, and an adaptation checklist within hours.
- Read the full study: PLOS One.
- Try Evidano for free
Topics
- qualitative analysis
- disclosure decision aids
- Nominal Group Technique
- NGT Georgia 2026
- Evidano
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- Commentary on NewsQualitative Analysis of HIV Disclosure Decision AidsQualitative analysis of HIV disclosure decision aids with 22 stakeholders in Jul 2026. AI-enabled workflow to prioritize adaptations and speed pilot design.
- Commentary on NewsQualitative Analysis of SLP Job ReadinessTurn PLOS One (Jul 21, 2026) SLP focus-group findings into reproducible thematic evidence with AI transcription, translation, coding, and secure audit trails.