Article type
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Abstract
Background: There have been increasing calls for consumer participation in the development of evidence based medicine products. Two recent reports published by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), ‘Finding What Works in Heath Care: Standards for Systematic Reviews’ and ‘Clinical Practice Guidelines We Can Trust’ called for the involvement of consumers during the development and peer review of systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines respectively. To support our organization’s mission, in advancing the art, science, and ethical practice of our medical specialty we have increasingly sought the input of consumers and the public during the development of evidence based medicine products.
Objectives: To provide an overview of how our organization, a medical specialty society, has incorporated consumers in the development of evidence based medicine products, such as clinical practice guidelines. Description of best practice: To incorporate consumers in the development of clinical practice guidelines, our organization has developed a collaborative relationship with a coalition of consumer advocacy organizations. This collaborative effort has allowed us to appoint educated consumers, familiar with evidence based medicine, to our guideline development groups. In addition, our current methodology educates each consumer on our guideline development processes and provides a basic understanding of the clinical topic being considered. Furthermore, our peer review process now includes a public comment period. This comment period has allowed our organization to reach out to relevant stakeholders to provide insight prior to publication. The public comment period has promoted greater transparency but has also driven significant improvements to our evidence based medicine products.
Conclusions: Our experiences can provide a template for other organizations and/or developers for how to involve consumers. In particular, the lessons highlighted offer a framework to extend these concepts to the development of other evidence based medicine products, such as systematic reviews.
Objectives: To provide an overview of how our organization, a medical specialty society, has incorporated consumers in the development of evidence based medicine products, such as clinical practice guidelines. Description of best practice: To incorporate consumers in the development of clinical practice guidelines, our organization has developed a collaborative relationship with a coalition of consumer advocacy organizations. This collaborative effort has allowed us to appoint educated consumers, familiar with evidence based medicine, to our guideline development groups. In addition, our current methodology educates each consumer on our guideline development processes and provides a basic understanding of the clinical topic being considered. Furthermore, our peer review process now includes a public comment period. This comment period has allowed our organization to reach out to relevant stakeholders to provide insight prior to publication. The public comment period has promoted greater transparency but has also driven significant improvements to our evidence based medicine products.
Conclusions: Our experiences can provide a template for other organizations and/or developers for how to involve consumers. In particular, the lessons highlighted offer a framework to extend these concepts to the development of other evidence based medicine products, such as systematic reviews.