title: Developing and Evaluating Communication Strategies to Support Informed Decisions and Practice Based on Evidence (DECIDE): protocol and preliminary results.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Healthcare decision makers face challenges when using guidelines, including understanding the quality of the evidence or the values and preferences upon which recommendations are made, which are often not clear.
  
  
  METHODS
  GRADE is a systematic approach towards assessing the quality of evidence and the strength of recommendations in healthcare. GRADE also gives advice on how to go from evidence to decisions. It has been developed to address the weaknesses of other grading systems and is now widely used internationally. The Developing and Evaluating Communication Strategies to Support Informed Decisions and Practice Based on Evidence (DECIDE) consortium (http://www.decide-collaboration.eu/), which includes members of the GRADE Working Group and other partners, will explore methods to ensure effective communication of evidence-based recommendations targeted at key stakeholders: healthcare professionals, policymakers, and managers, as well as patients and the general public. Surveys and interviews with guideline producers and other stakeholders will explore how presentation of the evidence could be improved to better meet their information needs. We will collect further stakeholder input from advisory groups, via consultations and user testing; this will be done across a wide range of healthcare systems in Europe, North America, and other countries. Targeted communication strategies will be developed, evaluated in randomized trials, refined, and assessed during the development of real guidelines.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results of the DECIDE project will improve the communication of evidence-based healthcare recommendations. Building on the work of the GRADE Working Group, DECIDE will develop and evaluate methods that address communication needs of guideline users. The project will produce strategies for communicating recommendations that have been rigorously evaluated in diverse settings, and it will support the transfer of research into practice in healthcare systems globally.
authors.affiliation: Population Health Sciences, University of Dundee, Kirsty Semple Way, Dundee, UK. streweek@mac.com
authors.forename: Shaun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Treweek
authors.forename: Andrew D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Oxman
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Alderson
authors.forename: Patrick M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Bossuyt
authors.forename: Linn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Brandt
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brożek
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Davoli
authors.forename: Signe
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Flottorp
authors.forename: Robin
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Harbour
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Liberati
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liira
authors.forename: Holger J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Schünemann
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rosenbaum
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thornton
authors.forename: Per Olav
authors.initials: PO
authors.lastname: Vandvik
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Alonso-Coello
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D003626:Data Display; D003657:Decision Making; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000592:standards*; D005246:Feedback; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007600:Judgment; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D011364:Professional Practice / Q000592:standards*; D016730:Program Development; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D012196:Review Literature as Topic