Clinical guidelines are sets of recommendations for a particular disease area or healthcare need, published by a trusted organisation, which aim to optimise patient outcomes. Healthcare professionals and policymakers use clinical guidelines to help them deliver healthcare based on the best available scientific research. In Ireland, National Clinical Guidelines are created through a detailed process by “guideline development groups” that include healthcare professionals, patient representatives and health system administrators. HRB’s “Evidence Synthesis to support Clinical practice Guideline development” (HRB-ESCG) grant funds a team of researchers at Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) and Trinity College Dublin (TCD) to help guideline development groups find and use the best available scientific research to make effective and trustworthy guidelines.
Members of the public may not be familiar with what clinical guidelines are, how they are created, and how to get involved in the development process. Many healthcare professionals are also not aware of how guidelines are created and how to get involved. This gap can lead to mistrust of health policy and policymakers, as well as a lost opportunity to ensure recommendations are based on real clinical practice and address outcomes that matter to patients.
The STAKEholder project aims to improve knowledge exchange within the HRB-ESCG grant. Its goals are to:
improve awareness and transparency around what clinical guidelines are and how they are developed in Ireland;
prepare patients and healthcare professionals to be active guideline development group members; and
better understand patients’ and healthcare professionals’ perspectives on how guidelines are created and rolled out.
To reach these goals, we will (1) partner with patients and healthcare professionals to create and widely share innovative digital versions of existing education materials and (2) host an in-person workshop with patients, public, and healthcare professionals to better understand how clinical guidelines affect their lives and work.