Consumer / patient involvement in Australian clinical practice guidelines

Clinical practice guidelines provide evidence-based recommendations to inform healthcare decision-making and optimise patient care. Standards for guideline development mandate that healthcare consumers (patients, families and their representatives) should be involved in the guideline development process. However, guidelines typically involve none or a few consumers, and rarely include people from marginalised groups. In this project we would like to explore the nature and extent of consumer involvement in Australian guidelines. The approach could include interviews, surveys or a document review. The results will inform future research and guidance to support guideline developers to better involve consumers. The Australian Living Evidence Collaboration, within Cochrane Australia, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, is a world-first initiative that brings together leading experts in evidence synthesis, guideline development and digital technologies to build a next generation system for delivering reliable, accessible, up-to-date evidence in health. You will be supervised by experienced and supportive researchers from ALEC, and welcomed into the ALEC team.