Engaging the Public Voice in Health Care Decision-Making

Health care systems around the world have a long history demonstrating inadequate and/or limited engagement of public voices in decision-making processes. In an attempt to increase the capacity for greater public involvement in policy and decision-making within Canadian health care jurisdictions, a team of Canadian researchers and decision makers embarked on a three-year (2001–04) national collaborative program of applied research. The aims of this research were to unpack the meaning of effectiveness in the context of public participation methods, to develop guiding principles for the design and implementation of more effective public participation methods and to rigorously assess the implementation of new public participation methods with health regions across Canada.