Developing meaningful collaborations between consumers and Cochrane Review Groups in peer review

Workshop category: 

  • Editorial processes and supporting review authors
Date and Location

Date: 

Monday 17 September 2018 - 14:00 to 15:30

Location: 

Lowther
Contact persons and facilitators

Contact person:

Genie Han

Facilitators:

Li T1, Le JT2, Qureshi R3, Han G4, Lesselroth M5, Fitton N6
1 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA
2 Johns Hopkins University, USA
3 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Canada
4 Consumers United for Evidence-based Healthcare, USA
5 CNY Glaucoma Support Group, USA
6 CCNet, USA

Acknowledgements:

Dickersin K1, Han G2, Morley R3
1 Cochrane Eyes and Vision US Satellite, USA
2 Consumers United for Evidence-based Healthcare, USA
3 Cochrane Consumer Network (CCNet), UK
Target audience

Target audience: 

Review authors, consumers

Level of difficulty: 

Basic
Type of workshop

Type of workshop : 

Discussion
Abstract

Abstract:

Background:
Consumers United for Evidence-based Healthcare (CUE) and Cochrane Eyes and Vision USA Satellite (CEV@US) partnered to match patient peer reviewers to Cochrane systematic reviews. This partnership incorporated patient perspectives, review author expertise, and current research literature to engage patient partners in peer review.

Objectives:
To provide a workshop experience for individuals engaged in or wanting to engage health consumers in research. We will discuss the collaborative experience between CUE and CEV@US in peer review as an example for Cochrane Review Groups seeking consumer engagement in systematic reviews. We use the term 'consumer' to refer to patients, their caregivers, and other consumers of healthcare.
This workshop will provide specific actions for consumers and Cochrane review authors on how to initiate and sustain these partnerships.

Description:
We will address four key issues related to consumer engagement:
1) where to recruit consumers;
2) what educational resources are available for consumers;
3) how to sustain a mutually beneficial and respectful partnership; and
4) how to improve the engagement process by incorporating feedback from consumers.
Each key issue will be covered by the following format: exercise, presentation, and discussion. We will provide a resource bank with relevant tools for each issue; the bank will include free online tools such as the 'Cochrane for consumers' pathway produced by Cochrane Training and courses produced by CUE.

Participants will work in groups to brainstorm ideas for the key issues and then share suggestions in a round-robin discussion. We will make exercise materials available for those registered prior to the workshop to facilitate discussion of issues.
Facilitators will explain specific ways that the partnership between CEV@US and CUE facilitated patient engagement in Cochrane Reviews. We synthesized patient perspectives, review author expertise, and current research literature when addressing each key issue.
Through discussion, we will address lessons learned from the CEV@US and CUE collaboration on patient peer review for Cochrane Reviews. We will ask audience members to share their own experiences engaging consumers in Cochrane Reviews, and facilitators will use group discussion to troubleshoot any unaddressed issues.

Relevance to patients and consumers: 

We will discuss development of the collaboration between Consumers United for Evidence-based Healthcare (CUE) and Cochrane Eyes and Vision US Satellite (CEV@US). CUE is a USA coalition of 50 health advocacy organizations that works to educate and include consumers in research partnerships. We will discuss the methods by which this partnership successfully matched motivated patients to peer review Cochrane systematic reviews. Our example will be used as a case study for how consumers and review groups can work together to improve Cochrane Reviews. CEV@US will be choosing a consumer co-facilitator through a lottery process.