Increasing User Involvement in Health Care and Health Research Simultaneously: A Proto-Protocol for...

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Decision Science
• Public Health

Background:

• Growing emphasis on user involvement in health policy globally.
• Belief that user involvement improves individual and community health outcomes.
• Need to respect principles of autonomy and democracy in healthcare.

Purpose of the Study:

• To increase user involvement in health care and health research through a web-based project.
• To conceptualize individuals as researchers of their own health.
• To contribute individual health research to the wider community.

Main Methods:

• Development of online decision support tools (interactive decision aids).
• Tools are openly accessible and delivered directly to the community.
• A high-level protocol using the Populations, Interventions, Comparators, Outcomes, Timings, and Settings (PICOTS) framework for condition-specific studies.

Main Results:

• Hypothesis: 'People-as-researchers' with prescriptive decision aids are more active participants than those with descriptive aids.
• Prescriptive aids provide a transparent, expected value-based opinion.
• Testing will be setting-specific and condition-specific.

Conclusions:

• Decision resources can stimulate greater individual involvement in health.
• The project aims for short-term progress with minimal resources at the point of decision.
• The approach blurs distinctions between science/non-science and lay/professional roles.