A Modified Nominal Group Technique (mNGT) - Finding Priorities in Research.

The objective of this study was to describe a modified nominal group technique (mNGT) approach to assess community health priorities and its application to a childhood obesity prevention project conducted with the high school population. This manuscript provides detailed information of a mNGT separately conducted with 3 cohorts, (students, teachers/administration, parents). Participants used a response sheet to brainstorm, document top 5 responses, and rank each response individually. We also used a unique reverse scoring method to quantify the qualitative data and within and between group scores for comparison against other cohorts. Summaries provided additional insight into the participants' perceptions. The mNGT process successfully reduced limitations common to the traditional nominal group technique by providing an in-depth understanding of perceptions and understanding priorities. mNGT can be useful across other disciplines as a method of gathering rich qualitative feedback that can be transformed into a more quantitative form for analysis.