The ALEC Consumer Engagement Day recently brought together guideline developers and people with lived experience to explore innovative ways to engage consumers in all stages of guideline development. Facilitated by ALEC’s Consumer Engagement Lead Dr Annie Synnot and LEAPP Consumer Panel member Ahlia Griffiths, the sessions focussed on inspiring guideline developers and learning how others are working with consumers in guidelines.
Annie says, “The aims of the day were to share good practice in consumer engagement in guidelines, foster collaboration and new networks, solve challenges together and be inspired. I think we more than achieved that on all fronts”.
Dr David Tunnicliffe and Ieyesha Roberts kicked off proceedings with an exploration of the CARI (Caring for Australasians with Renal Impairment) guideline development process. They highlighted the meaningful involvement of First Nations people in creating the CARI kidney care recommendations. This represented a genuine collaboration that highlighted First Nations voices from across Australia.
A/Prof Leah Heiss from Monash Art, Design and Architecture then took the stage, sharing her exciting work focused on strategies for improving the usability and impact of World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Leah discussed the four global co-design consultations she had led, engaging participants from 15 countries to develop the ‘WHO Principles and Tools to improve use and impact of WHO Guidelines’ a practical guide to support all WHO Guideline developers to improve the usability and accessibility of guidelines across countries. The work emphasises the importance of understanding the users of guidelines and what their specific needs are, writing in a manner that is clear and free of jargon, and utilising communication design approaches that support readability of guidelines (e.g. white space, colour, illustrations, fonts). Leah also spoke about her work with Alfred Health in co-designing their Universal Design Principles to support all future digital health, infrastructures, People and Culture, and innovation projects.
As the day wrapped up, one key message was crystal clear. The future is about embracing consumer voices in innovative ways to create guidelines that are engaging and useable. This was reflected in the feedback participants shared, which was overwhelmingly positive.
‘ALEC’s Consumer Engagement Day was well structured and enjoyably interactive,’ said Rachel Silk. ‘I learnt so much from considering consumer perspectives – especially with respect to recruiting and engaging First Nations peoples. Sharing methods of adapting evidence to decision criteria to fit your purpose, including tools to measure and improve the quality of the work we do was also really valuable. I highly recommend attending ALEC workshops to anyone working in this space.”
Rachel’s positive feedback was echoed by other participants who said that bringing consumers and guideline groups together to share and collaborate offered an excellent opportunity to better understand how to improve the design and methods of engaging consumers in guideline development.
Summing up a key theme of the day, another participant said ‘It was really interesting to learn how different guidelines are working with consumers, to understand the challenges and discuss how we can improve trust and reciprocity.’
Attendees had a number of suggestions for what else ALEC could do to support their consumer engagement activities.
Stay tuned for more events and activities in 2025.