WORK PACKAGE 8

Development of tailored decision-making tools: the COMPAR-EU information technology platform

Main objectives:

  • To develop decision-making tools to facilitate and disseminate the use of the most effective self-management interventions (SMIs) among key target end-users through the COMPAR-EU technology information platform.
  • To pilot and refine the decision-making tools and the COMPAR-EU platform with `live´ end-users in five European countries.

Approach:

A technological platform is developed where tried-and-tested tools are used to integrate the information and evidence synthesised during the different phases of COMPAR-EU. Those tools facilitate decision-making for target end users, including patients, health care professionals, policymakers, researchers, and SMEs. Evidence profiles and interactive Summary of Findings (iSoF) tables are developed, which summarise evidence in succinct, transparent, and informative tables that show the quality of evidence and the magnitude of relative and absolute effects for each important outcome. Interactive Evidence to Decision (EtD) Frameworks are developed with the purpose to help policymakers and managers to use evidence in a structured and transparent way in order to make decisions in the context of clinical recommendations, coverage decisions, and health system or public health recommendations and decisions. Interactive patient decision aids incorporate the evidence about the relative effectiveness and associated certainty of the relevant comparisons. These decision-making tools will be based on the GRADE approach, widely used as system of reference to characterise evidence-based recommendations according to the quality of the supporting evidence and the balance between desirable and undesirable consequences of the alternative management options. Tests of user experience of the decision-making tools for each of the selected conditions are performed. In addition, focus groups provide reflection on the results and elicit information on the applicability, transferability, and scalability of the decision-making tools.

Leading partner: Fundació Privada Institut de Recerca de l’Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (IR-HSCSP), Spain

Other partners involved:

  • Fundación Avedis Donabedian (FAD), Spain
  • European Patients’ Forum (EPF), Belgium
  • Institute for Medical Technology Assessment (iMTA), The Netherlands
  • Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (Nivel), The Netherlands
  • OptiMedis AG, Germany
  • University of Ioannina (UOI), Greece