The IDEAL Collaboration and Framework

It is dedicated to enhancing the quality and safety of healthcare through the rigorous evaluation of surgical procedure innovations, surgical devices, as well as nonpharmacologic complex interventions. The IDEAL Collaboration grew from a group of research methodologists and surgeons who held a series of meetings about improving surgical innovation research at Balliol College, Oxford during 2007-2008.

Their discussions culminated in the publication of a series of papers in the Lancet in 2009. The papers outline the IDEAL Framework which describes the stages through which surgical therapy innovation normally passes, describing the characteristics of each the stages Idea, Development, Exploration, Assessment and Long-term follow-up and provides recommendations about how studies at each stage should be designed and reported.

The group also put forward proposals about how specific groups including research publishers, funders, regulators, policymakers and professional organisations could contribute to improving the research and implementation environment for surgical innovation.

The key principles of IDEAL are transparency, ethics, and reduction of research waste.

The IDEAL Collaboration exists to:

• Advance methodologies in the study and implementation of clinical innovations.
• Advocate for a life-cycle based approach to evaluation of complex therapies, with study designs directed to answering the key questions at each stage in the cycle
• Advocate for the use of ethical principles in defining the appropriate evaluation methods at each stage
• Encourage collaboration among researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and other stakeholders in the healthcare community.
• Foster training and education initiatives to enhance the academic development and productivity of investigators within surgery and other in nonpharmacological complex interventions in healthcare.
• Foster the development and dissemination of robust evidence to inform clinical practice and policy.
• Promote the development of innovations by harnessing emerging technologies to improve clinical care and refine the methods used to evaluate these technologies.
• Advocate for and support global surgery initiatives to improve surgical care worldwide, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, and enhance the methodologies for evaluating surgical interventions in these settings.

Via the IDEAL Advisory Service, the Collaboration is committed to helping real-world implementation of the IDEAL framework for the betterment of innovative research.

Find out more via the links below.