A multistakeholder development process to prioritize and translate COVID-19 health recommendations for patients, caregivers and the public. A case study of the COVID-19 recommendation map

Kevin Pottie; Maureen Smith; Micayla Matthews; Nancy Santesso; Olivia Magwood; Tamara Kredo; Sarah Scott; Kerin Bayliss; Ammar Saad; Rinila Haridas; Nicole Detambel; Ashley Motilall; Yvonne Tan; Sally Steinberg; Justyna Litynska; Bart Dietl; Alfonso Ioiri; Ludovic Reveiz; Vivian Welch; Miloslav Klugar; Lawrence Mbuagbaw; Maria Ximena Rojas; Ivan D Florez; Tamara Lotfi; Amir Qaseem; Joseph L Mathew; Elie A Akl; Peter Tugwell; Holger J Schünemann

doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.04.012

A multistakeholder development process to prioritize and translate COVID-19 health recommendations for patients, caregivers and the public. A case study of the COVID-19 recommendation map

J Clin Epidemiol. 2022 Aug:148:104-114. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2022.04.012. Epub 2022 Apr 30.

Authors

Kevin Pottie¹, Maureen Smith², Micayla Matthews³, Nancy Santesso⁴, Olivia Magwood⁵, Tamara Kredo⁶, Sarah Scott⁷, Kerin Bayliss⁸, Ammar Saad⁵, Rinila Haridas⁵, Nicole Detambel³, Ashley Motilall³, Yvonne Tan⁵, Sally Steinberg⁹, Justyna Litynska¹⁰, Bart Dietl¹⁰, Alfonso Ioiri¹¹, Ludovic Reveiz¹², Vivian Welch¹³, Miloslav Klugar¹⁴, Lawrence Mbuagbaw¹⁵, Maria Ximena Rojas¹⁶, Ivan D Florez¹⁷, Tamara Lotfi⁴, Amir Qaseem¹⁸, Joseph L Mathew¹⁹, Elie A Akl²⁰, Peter Tugwell¹³, Holger J Schünemann²¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; CT Lamont Centre for Primary Care, Bruyere Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada; Department of Family Medicine, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: kpottie@uwo.ca.
² Citizen, Chair, Cochrane Consumer Network Executive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
³ Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Michael G. DeGroote Cochrane Canada and GRADE Centre, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
⁵ CT Lamont Centre for Primary Care, Bruyere Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
⁶ Michael G. DeGroote Cochrane Canada and GRADE Centre, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Cochrane South Africa, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa; Clinical Pharmacology, Department of Medicine, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa.
⁷ Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
⁸ Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Manchester, UK.
⁹ Citizen, Lancaster High School, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
¹⁰ Evidence Prime, Inc., Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
¹¹ Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
¹² Incident Management Systems for COVID-19 and Evidence and Intelligence for Action in Health Department, Pan American Health Organization, Washington, DC, USA.
¹³ School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; CT Lamont Centre for Primary Care, Bruyere Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada.
¹⁴ Czech National Centre for Evidence-Based Healthcare and Knowledge Translation Brno, Czech Republic.
¹⁵ Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Cochrane South Africa, South African Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa.
¹⁶ Instit d'Recerca-Servei D'Epidemiologia Clinica, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, Colombia.
¹⁷ Department of Pediatrics, Universidad de Antioquia, Calle 67 No. 53-108; Medellin, Antioquia, Colombia; School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, L8S 3L8, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Clinica Las Americas-AUNA, Dg.75B ##2A-80/140, Medellin, Colombia.
¹⁸ American College of Physicians, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
¹⁹ Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
²⁰ Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Department of Internal Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
²¹ Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Michael G. DeGroote Cochrane Canada and GRADE Centre, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Abstract

Background and objectives: To develop a digital communication tool to improve the implementation of up-to-date COVID-19 recommendations. Specifically, to improve patient, caregiver and public understanding of healthcare recommendations on prevention, diagnoses and treatment.

Methods: Multi-stakeholder engagement design. In conjunction with the COVID-19 Recommendations and Gateway to Contextualization RecMap, we co-developed a stakeholder prioritization, drafting and editing process to enhance guideline communication and understanding.

Results: This paper presents the multi-stakeholder development process with three distinct plain language recommendation formats: formal recommendation, good practice statement, and additional guidance. Our case study of COVID-19 plain language recommendations PLRs addresses both public health interventions (e.g., vaccination, face masks) and clinical interventions (e.g., home pulse oximetry).

Conclusion: This paper presents a novel approach to engaging stakeholders in improving the communication and understanding of published guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; COVID-19 vaccines; GRADE; Guidance; Patient and public guidelines; Plain language summaries; Recommendations.

MeSH terms

COVID-19* / epidemiology
COVID-19* / prevention & control
Caregivers
Humans
Masks
Pandemics / prevention & control
Public Health