Participation in health care priority-setting through the eyes of the participants.
OBJECTIVE
The literature on participation in priority-setting has three key gaps: it focuses on techniques for obtaining public input into priority-setting that are consultative mechanisms and do not involve the public directly in decision-making; it focuses primarily on the public's role in priority-setting, not on all potential participants; and the range of roles that various participants play in a group making priority decisions has not been described. To begin addressing these gaps, we interviewed individuals who participated on two priority-setting committees to identify key insights from participants about participation.


METHODS
A qualitative study consisting of interviews with decision-makers, including patients and members of the public.


RESULTS
Members of the public can contribute directly to important aspects of priority-setting. The participants described six specific priority-setting roles: committee chair, administrator, medical specialist, medical generalist, public representative and patient representative. They also described the contributions of each role to priority-setting.


CONCLUSIONS
Using the insights from decision-makers, we have described lessons related to direct involvement of members of the public and patients in priority-setting, and have identified six roles and the contributions of each role.
Martin
Douglas K
DK
Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, 88 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L4, Canada.
Abelson
Julia
J
Singer
Peter A
PA
D000288:Administrative Personnel; D026683:Advisory Committees / Q000458:organization & administration*; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000628:therapy; D003256:Community Participation / Q000523:psychology*; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D006292:Health Priorities / Q000145:classification*; D006801:Humans; D008511:Medicine; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy; D009864:Ontario; D010361:Patients; D010821:Physicians, Family; D024382:Professional Role; D036301:Qualitative Research; D013038:Specialization