Article type
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Abstract
Background: Involving stakeholders, such as patients, health professionals and policy makers, in systematic review processes helps to ensure that the most important research questions are addressed and outcomes of interest are identified. Consulting stakeholders at an early stage in the review process can also increase acceptance of the research, thereby increasing the potential impact on decision making. The Cochrane Cancer Network is made up of six Cochrane Review Groups (CRGs) who provide reliable evidence required to make important decisions concerning cancer. CRG members indicated wanting to improve stakeholder engagement in their work and to facilitate this, we conducted a stakeholder mapping project to identify relevant organisations and individuals to engage with.
Objectives: The project aimed to identify stakeholders for the six cancer CRGs and the Network overall, creating a resource that will facilitate stakeholder engagement in review production and knowledge translation activities.
Methods: Stakeholder information was gathered from CRGs, guidelines and social media. First, CRGs were surveyed for information about stakeholders they have worked with and would like to work with. Then, using information from Cochrane UK, guidelines in which CRGs reviews had been cited from 1st Jan 2017 to 31 Sep 2019 were searched for lists of contributing stakeholders. Stakeholders were compiled into a spreadsheet with a page for each CRG and all mapped stakeholders were searched on Twitter to gather information about the type of organisation, audience, online presence, location and to find further suggestions. Stakeholders common to all CRGs were added to a Network map. Each CRG was sent their stakeholder map and edits were made following discussions about stakeholder relevance, alignment of priorities and feasibility of connection.
Results: We identified 180 stakeholders located in over 15 countries with a collective total of 7.8m Twitter followers. Of these, 63 organisations were charities. An overview is shown in the attached image. So far the stakeholder map has been used by two CRGs to inform the planning of a priority setting exercise and a dissemination strategy for a suite of reviews.
Conclusions: There are numerous organisations and individuals working towards common goals in cancer research across the world. Identification of these through this stakeholder mapping exercise will allow us to work towards increasing stakeholder partnerships in the Cancer Network.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: Identification of relevant stakeholders is the first step to improving stakeholder engagement in review processes in the Cancer Network. This will lead to more relevant review questions, more thought about what matters to decision makers and increased acceptance of Cochrane systematic reviews in evidence-based decision making. Ultimately this will increase the usage and relevance of Cochrane evidence to stakeholders, including patients and consumers.
Objectives: The project aimed to identify stakeholders for the six cancer CRGs and the Network overall, creating a resource that will facilitate stakeholder engagement in review production and knowledge translation activities.
Methods: Stakeholder information was gathered from CRGs, guidelines and social media. First, CRGs were surveyed for information about stakeholders they have worked with and would like to work with. Then, using information from Cochrane UK, guidelines in which CRGs reviews had been cited from 1st Jan 2017 to 31 Sep 2019 were searched for lists of contributing stakeholders. Stakeholders were compiled into a spreadsheet with a page for each CRG and all mapped stakeholders were searched on Twitter to gather information about the type of organisation, audience, online presence, location and to find further suggestions. Stakeholders common to all CRGs were added to a Network map. Each CRG was sent their stakeholder map and edits were made following discussions about stakeholder relevance, alignment of priorities and feasibility of connection.
Results: We identified 180 stakeholders located in over 15 countries with a collective total of 7.8m Twitter followers. Of these, 63 organisations were charities. An overview is shown in the attached image. So far the stakeholder map has been used by two CRGs to inform the planning of a priority setting exercise and a dissemination strategy for a suite of reviews.
Conclusions: There are numerous organisations and individuals working towards common goals in cancer research across the world. Identification of these through this stakeholder mapping exercise will allow us to work towards increasing stakeholder partnerships in the Cancer Network.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: Identification of relevant stakeholders is the first step to improving stakeholder engagement in review processes in the Cancer Network. This will lead to more relevant review questions, more thought about what matters to decision makers and increased acceptance of Cochrane systematic reviews in evidence-based decision making. Ultimately this will increase the usage and relevance of Cochrane evidence to stakeholders, including patients and consumers.