Background: Cochrane reviews are increasingly being translated into products aimed at specific audiences, including primary care clinicians. Additional tools are needed to assist time-challenged practitioners in improving their access to evidence-based answers to clinical questions and to facilitate author-practitioner knowledge exchange. Creation of these tools necessitates the active involvement of clinicians in the development phase. Objectives: To develop a template for clinical question and answer summaries (CUES); to describe the results of a survey used to develop the template; and to outline a proposed study evaluating the effectiveness of evidence summaries of Cochrane reviews. Methods: Clinicians participating in a Cochrane review group workshop, aswell as those receiving a quarterly evidence-based therapy newsletter, will be asked to complete a user needs survey designed to inform the creation of a template for presenting focused clinical question and answer evidence summaries drawn from the results of Cochrane reviews. Survey questions will address preferred evidence summary formats, headings, content, subject priorities and length. Interested clinicians will be invited to participate in a study evaluating the effectiveness of the evidence summary template in translating the results of a sample of Cochrane to practitioners. Study participants will be pre- and post-tested on knowledge of information presented in a selection of CUES. Results: The results of the preliminary survey will be reported in October 2010. Design and development of the pre-post study to be carried out in early 2011 will be described in further detail. Conclusions: Effective development of evidence summaries for primary care clinicians requires the active participation of the target audience in the process. The results of the survey and evaluation of the pre-post study will inform the development of CUES for a Cochrane review group.