Lay and professional stakeholder involvement in scoping palliative care issues: Methods used in seven European countries

Background:Stakeholders are people with an interest in a topic. Internationally, stakeholder involvement in palliative care research and health technology assessment requires development. Stakeholder involvement adds value throughout research (from prioritising topics to disseminating findings). Philosophies and understandings about the best ways to involve stakeholders in research differ internationally. Stakeholder involvement took place in seven countries (England, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Poland). Findings informed a project that developed concepts and methods for health technology assessment and applied these to evaluate models of palliative care service delivery.Aims:To report on stakeholder involvement in the INTEGRATE-HTA project and how issues identified informed project development.Design:Using stakeholder consultation or a qualitative research design, as appropriate locally, stakeholders in seven countries acted as ‘advisors’ to aid researchers’ decision making. Th...