Advisory Service for designing IDEAL Stage studies
We are pleased to announce that we are piloting a service for researchers and innovators seeking guidance on planning a study and writing a protocol for their evaluation of a surgical technique or therapeutic device appropriate to any stage of the IDEAL Framework.
The service will be available free of charge to clinicians and scientists doing this work as part of a grant-funded research project, or as an unfunded service improvement. Contact allison.hirst@nds.ox.ac.uk
A separate Consultancy arrangement is available for commercial companies, through our associated non-profit company, IDEAL Innovation CIC. To access this, please send initial enquiries to idealinnovationukcic@gmail.com
If you are unsure which service is appropriate for you, please enquire to the e-mail address below in the first instance.
What do you need to do?
We ask you to contact us in the first instance to check your work is suitable – email allison.hirst@nds.ox.ac.uk
We will then ask you to identify the IDEAL stage and key purpose/question of your study using our key IDEAL papers and Flowchart to do so;
- The original IDEAL Framework 2009: McCulloch P, Altman DG, Campbell WB, et al. for the Balliol Collaboration. No surgical innovation without evaluation: the IDEAL recommendations. Lancet 2009; Sep 26; 374 (9695): 1105-12.
- The updated 2019 paper: Hirst A, Philippou Y, Blazeby J, Campbell B, Campbell M, Feinberg J, et al. No Surgical Innovation Without Evaluation: Evolution and Further Development of the IDEAL Framework and Recommendations. Ann Surg.2019 Feb;269(2):211-220.
- The IDEAL Stage Flowchart: http://www.ideal-collaboration.net/ideal-flowchart-and-stage-questions-for-assessing-literature/
Once we have confirmed the relevant stage with you we will allocate you an expert IDEAL Advisor to help you develop your protocol using stage-specific guidance which we will provide. Our advisors for the service include; Peter McCulloch, Art Sedrakyan, Arsenio Paez, Joel Horovitz, Angelos Kolias, Maroeska Rovers, Jane Blazeby, Fei Shan, Andrew Cook, Hani Marcus, Natalie Blencowe , Nicole Bilbro, Joshua Feinberg and Christopher Pennell.
The purpose of the service is for you to produce a clear written protocol for your study which you might consider publishing with your advisor as co-author.
Evaluation of the service
We aim to evaluate how useful our tools and service are to researchers in order to a) improve our service and b) learn from real cases studies where the IDEAL Framework/Recommendations can be amended/updated. As soon as possible after completion of your protocol we will ask you to complete a short online survey asking for your feedback on the experience.
Thank you.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Peter McCulloch (Chair) and Allison Hirst (Project Manager) on behalf of the IDEAL Team