IDEAL Proposals

IDEAL Proposals for actions that would improve the environment for complex interventions research

This section identifies specific actions which particular groups can take to help.

Editors and publishers

  • Promotion of IDEAL reporting and design standards in their instructions for authors
  • Assistance by editors with the development of registries of surgical protocols and reports
  • Calls for papers using specific innovative prospective study designs.

Funders (both service and research)

  • Provide specific funding for well-designed early-stage surgical innovation
  • Demanding evidence of clinical benefit for new technology
  • Link funding to adequate scientific evaluation
  • Support well-designed surgical databases, registries, and reporting systems

Regulators

  • Provide rapid, flexible, and expert ethical oversight for early-stage innovation
  • Link provisional approval to evaluation or registration of all cases
  • Accept IDEAL approved study designs as evidence of appropriate evaluation
  • Raise burden of proof for full licensing of new devices to demonstration of efficacy level

Professional societies

  • Ensure guidelines explicitly support IDEAL model of technical development and evaluation
  • Require members to use appropriate registers for the various stages of innovation as a condition of specialist recognition