Factors to Consider During Identification and Invitation of Individuals in a Multi-stakeholder Research Partnership

Roses Parker; Eve Tomlinson; Thomas W Concannon; Elie Akl; Jennifer Petkovic; Vivian A Welch; Sally Crowe; Marisha Palm; Ana Marusic; Comfort Ekanem; Imad Bou Akl; Michael Saginur; Lorenzo Moja; Tanja Kuchenmüller; Nevilene Slingers; Ligia Teixeira; Laura Dormer; Eddy Lang; Thurayya Arayssi; Regina Greer-Smith; Asma Ben Brahem; Marc Avey; Peter Tugwell

doi:10.1007/s11606-022-07411-w

Factors to Consider During Identification and Invitation of Individuals in a Multi-stakeholder Research Partnership

J Gen Intern Med. 2022 Dec;37(16):4047-4053. doi: 10.1007/s11606-022-07411-w. Epub 2022 Feb 7.

Authors

Roses Parker^#¹, Eve Tomlinson^#^{2

3}, Thomas W Concannon^{4

5}, Elie Akl⁶, Jennifer Petkovic⁷, Vivian A Welch⁷, Sally Crowe⁸, Marisha Palm⁹, Ana Marusic¹⁰, Comfort Ekanem¹¹, Imad Bou Akl⁶, Michael Saginur¹², Lorenzo Moja¹³, Tanja Kuchenmüller¹⁴, Nevilene Slingers¹⁵, Ligia Teixeira¹⁶, Laura Dormer¹⁷, Eddy Lang¹⁸, Thurayya Arayssi¹⁹, Regina Greer-Smith²⁰, Asma Ben Brahem²¹, Marc Avey²², Peter Tugwell²³

Affiliations

¹ Cochrane Pain Palliative and Supportive Care Group, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, UK.
² Cochrane Gynaecological, Neuro-oncology and Orphan Cancers Group, Royal United Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Bath, UK. eve.tomlinson@bristol.ac.uk.
³ Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. eve.tomlinson@bristol.ac.uk.
⁴ The RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, USA.
⁵ Tufts Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Boston, USA.
⁶ Department of Internal Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
⁷ Bruyere Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
⁸ Crowe Associates Ltd, Thame, UK.
⁹ Tufts Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies, Boston, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Research in Biomedicine and Health, University of Split School of Medicine, Split, Croatia.
¹¹ Department of Clinical Governance, SERVICOM &E-Health, Ministry of Health, Calabar, Cross River State, Nigeria.
¹² Montfort Hospital, Montfort Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada.
¹³ Department of Health Products Policy and Standards, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
¹⁴ Research for Health Department, Science Division, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
¹⁵ South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa.
¹⁶ Centre for Homelessness Impact, Robertson Trust, ESRC, NIHR, London, UK.
¹⁷ Future Science Group, Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research, London, UK.
¹⁸ Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
¹⁹ Weill Cornell Medicine, Ar-Rayyan, Qatar.
²⁰ Healthcare Research Associates, LLC/ST.A.R. Initiative, Mountlake Terrace, USA.
²¹ Instance Nationale de l'Evaluation et de l'Accréditation en Santé (INEAS), Tunis, Tunisia.
²² Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Canada.
²³ Dept of Medicine and School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Health research teams increasingly partner with stakeholders to produce research that is relevant, accessible, and widely used. Previous work has covered stakeholder group identification.

Objective: We aimed to develop factors for health research teams to consider during identification and invitation of individual representatives in a multi-stakeholder research partnership, with the aim of forming equitable and informed teams.

Design: Consensus development.

Participants: We involved 16 stakeholders from the international Multi-Stakeholder Engagement (MuSE) Consortium, including patients and the public, providers, payers of health services/purchasers, policy makers, programme managers, peer review editors, and principal investigators.

Approach: We engaged stakeholders in factor development and as co-authors of this manuscript. Using a modified Delphi approach, we gathered stakeholder views concerning a preliminary list of 18 factors. Over two feedback rounds, using qualitative and quantitative analysis, we concentrated these into ten factors.

Key results: We present seven highly desirable factors: 'expertise or experience', 'ability and willingness to represent the stakeholder group', 'inclusivity (equity, diversity and intersectionality)', 'communication skills', 'commitment and time capacity', 'financial and non-financial relationships and activities, and conflict of interest', 'training support and funding needs'. Additionally, three factors are desirable: 'influence', 'research relevant values', 'previous stakeholder engagement'.

Conclusions: We present factors for research teams to consider during identification and invitation of individual representatives in a multi-stakeholder research partnership. Policy makers and guideline developers may benefit from considering the factors in stakeholder identification and invitation. Research funders may consider stipulating consideration of the factors in funding applications. We outline how these factors can be implemented and exemplify how their use has the potential to improve the quality and relevancy of health research.

Keywords: International health; Patient engagement; Patient-centred outcomes research; Research design; Stakeholder engagement.

Factors to Consider During Identification and Invitation of Individuals in a Multi-stakeholder Research Partnership

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Grants and funding