Integrating public input into healthcare priority-setting decisions

Decision makers are pressed to involve the public in priority setting. However, public input is only one form of evidence. So, how can information from the public be combined with other knowledge? The authors qualitatively analysed articles that explicitly address this question. We identified the other forms of information that tend to be used in conjunction with public input, the degree to which members of the public are asked to be the integrators of data, and techniques that recur in several settings. Three factors must be balanced when integrating public opinion into priority setting: first, balancing problem-solving and sense-making objectives; second, choosing between consensus-building and structured-conflict approaches; third, addressing many broad factors or a smaller set of focused alternatives.