Message from the Malta Health Network and EPF
Our partners at EPF are working on the COMPAR-EU project and are looking to recruit participants. Those interested are asked to get back to me as soon as possible since registration is on a first come first serve basis.
What’s COMPAR-EU project
COMPAR-EU is a multi-method, multi-component, inter-disciplinary project funded within the EU programme for Research, Horizon 2020. COMPAR-EU will contribute to bridging the gap between current knowledge and practice on self-management interventions or SMIs.
COMPAR-EU will identify, compare, and rank the most effective and cost-effective self-management interventions (SMIs) for adults in Europe. It focuses on SMIs within four high-priority chronic conditions: type 2 diabetes (T2DM), obesity, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and heart failure.
Role of EPF in the project
EPF is leading Work Package 3 (WP3), namely: “Eliciting patients’ priorities and preferences” and as such it will:
*Identify key patient-prioritised outcomes as reported in the literature for each of the four chronic conditions through organising and executing a Delphi process (two-stages) over the course of 2018. It will be an inclusive process involving as many as possible patients’ perspectives;
*Ensure that patients’ views and gender and socioeconomic dimensions that could potentially affect equity are taken into account throughout the project.
We would like to invite patients/patients’ representatives with knowledge, skills, experience in the 4 conditions to take part in our Delphi consensus process about prioritising of the relevance of patients’ preferences in terms of outcome measures.
What is a Delphi Study?
The Delphi technique seeks to obtain consensus on the opinions of experts, termed panel members, through a series of structured questionnaires. The questionnaires will be in electronic format uploaded on a specially dedicated platform. There will be an analysis and a follow-up validation workshop.
If I take part, what will I be asked to do?
We will invite you to answer two online questionnaires about the relevance of identified outcomes regarding the four conditions, spread over multiple weeks (see calendar below). We respectfully request a maximum response time of 14 days for completion of each round. Then, if you are available and interested to participate, we will be happy to invite you (costs covered, in case of questions ask contact person) to a workshop discussion in July 2018, where we will be validating the results of the questionnaires together with other relevant stakeholders – healthcare professionals, experts, researchers and of course – patients and patients’ representatives.
Proposed timeline
Delphi Round 1 – 3rd May to 7th May
Delphi Round 2 – 24th May to 8th June
Face-to-Face Workshop – 10th July to 11th July
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