Wortley Sally, Tong Allison, Lancsar Emily, Salkeld Glenn, Howard Kirsten
Sydney School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, 2006, Australia.
Centre for Kidney Research The Children's Hospital, Westmead Corner Hawkesbury and Hainsworth Street, Westmead, 2145, Australia.
BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2015 Jul 14;15:52. doi: 10.1186/s12911-015-0176-0.
Much attention in recent years has been given to the topic of public engagement in health technology assessment (HTA) decision-making. HTA organizations spend substantial resources and time on undertaking public engagement, and numerous studies have examined challenges and barriers to engagement in the decision-making process however uncertainty remains as to optimal methods to incorporate the views of the public in HTA decision-making. Little research has been done to ascertain whether current engagement processes align with public preferences and to what extent their desire for engagement is dependent on the question being asked by decision-makers or the characteristics of the decision. This study will examine public preferences for engagement in Australian HTA decision-making using an exploratory mixed methods design.
METHODS/DESIGN: The aims of this study are to: 1) identify characteristics about HTA decisions that are important to the public in determining whether public engagement should be undertaken on a particular topic, 2) determine which decision characteristics influence public preferences for the extent, or type of public engagement, and 3) describe reasons underpinning these preferences. Focus group participants from the general community, aged 18-70 years, will be purposively sampled from the Australian population to ensure a wide range of demographic groups. Each focus group will include a general discussion on public engagement as well as a ranking exercise using a modified nominal group technique (NGT). The NGT will inform the design of a discrete choice study to quantitatively assess public preferences for engagement in HTA decision-making.
The proposed research seeks to investigate under what circumstances and how the public would like their views and preferences to be considered in health technology assessments. HTA organizations regularly make decisions about when and how public engagement should occur but without consideration of the public's preferences on the method and extent of engagement. This information has the potential to assist decision-makers in tailoring engagement approaches, and may be particularly useful in decisions with potential for conflict where clarification of public values and preferences could strengthen the decision-making process.
近年来，公众参与卫生技术评估（HTA）决策这一话题备受关注。HTA组织在开展公众参与方面投入了大量资源和时间，众多研究探讨了参与决策过程中的挑战和障碍，然而，在将公众意见纳入HTA决策的最佳方法上仍存在不确定性。关于当前的参与过程是否符合公众偏好以及他们对参与的渴望在多大程度上取决于决策者提出的问题或决策的特征，几乎没有开展相关研究。本研究将采用探索性混合方法设计，考察澳大利亚公众对参与HTA决策的偏好。
方法/设计：本研究的目的是：1）确定HTA决策的哪些特征对公众在决定是否就特定主题进行公众参与时很重要；2）确定哪些决策特征会影响公众对公众参与程度或类型的偏好；3）描述这些偏好背后的原因。将从澳大利亚人群中有意抽取18 - 70岁的普通社区焦点小组参与者，以确保涵盖广泛的人口群体。每个焦点小组将包括关于公众参与的一般性讨论以及使用改良的名义小组技术（NGT）进行的排序练习。NGT将为离散选择研究的设计提供信息，以定量评估公众对参与HTA决策的偏好。
拟议的研究旨在调查在何种情况下以及公众希望如何在卫生技术评估中考虑他们的意见和偏好。HTA组织经常就何时以及如何进行公众参与做出决策，但没有考虑公众对参与方法和程度的偏好。这些信息有可能帮助决策者调整参与方式，在可能存在冲突的决策中可能特别有用，因为明确公众价值观和偏好可以加强决策过程。
