The Centre in Ireland for Clinical guideline support and Evidence Reviews (CICER) at the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has launched new online learning courses designed to support patients, members of the public and healthcare professionals to take part in the development of clinical guidelines. The courses include a series of modules designed to support those who wish to contribute to National Clinical Guideline development but may be unfamiliar with the process.

Clinical guidelines provide evidence‑based recommendations to help ensure patient care is effective, safe and consistent across the healthcare system. National Clinical Guidelines, like those on stopping smoking and on infection prevention and control, also set out clear plans for how interventions or practices should be implemented and resourced. There are several steps involved in creating a clinical guideline and the process can take some years from start to finish.

Clinical guidelines are most impactful when they are developed in partnership with the people who use and deliver health services. Patients and healthcare professionals bring essential insights into the lived experience of health conditions and the realities of day‑to‑day care. However, they might not get involved in guideline development due to a lack of accessible information, training or support.

To address this, CICER worked in partnership with patients and healthcare professionals to co-create online learning materials that explain how clinical guidelines are developed and outline the roles that patients and healthcare professionals can play. These resources are intended to support learners to get involved in guideline development groups.

The development of these resources by CICER is part of the STAKEholder project, the initiative behind the CICER conference hosted in Dublin in October 2025. ‘Our Healthcare System, Our Voices: An Evidence-based Approach for Healthcare’ that brought together patients, healthcare professionals and guideline developers to share knowledge, discuss challenges and explore opportunities for greater involvement. Full details on the activities and the outputs of the project are available in a final report, also published on the HIQA website today.

Commenting on the launch, HIQA’s Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Health Technology Assessment, Dr Máirín Ryan said:

“At our recent CICER conference, speakers and attendees were in agreement that when patient and public involvement happens early in research or policy development, the impact, relevance and overall quality of the work is greatly improved. It’s in this spirit that we are delighted to launch these new online learning materials, which aim to encourage increased involvement from both patients and healthcare professionals in clinical guideline development.”

Patient Partner, Stacey Grealis, added:

“We need more patient voices at all levels in clinical guideline development, especially those who are unheard. Historically, we tend to have the same people participating again and again and while our input is invaluable, there are people out there with unique lived experiences who through either a lack of awareness or engagement, are not involved and we need their enriched perspectives. That’s why efforts like this to actively engage and include a wider range of voices are so important to enhance clinical guideline development going forward. Nothing about us without us.”

The online learning courses and videos launched today are available here. You can access the courses on our website and if you know someone who may be interested, please share this resource on. 

This research is funded by the Health Research Board (ESCG-002; KTA-2024-035; APA-2022-030).

ENDS

Notes for Editor: 

• The Centre in Ireland for Clinical guideline support and Evidence Reviews (CICER) at the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has today published the following:

  • A 40-minute-long online learning course about clinical guidelines for patients and the public

  • A 40-minute-long online learning course about clinical guidelines for health professionals

  • A two-minute video about clinical guidelines for patients and the public

  • A two-minute video about clinical guidelines for health professionals

  • Final report on Scalable Training and Knowledge Exchange on

    guideline development for patients, public, and health professionals: The STAKEholder Project

• The CICER team was awarded the Knowledge Translation Award (KTA) by the Health Research Board (HRB) for “Scalable Training And Knowledge Exchange on guideline development for patients, public, and healthcare professionals: The STAKEholder project”. This project aims to improve knowledge exchange within the CICER programme by co-producing learning materials with patients, members of the public and health professionals.

• This research is funded by the Health Research Board Ireland (ESCG-002; KTA-2024-035; APA-2022-030). About our funder: “The Health Research Board (HRB) supports excellent research that improves people’s health, patient care and health service delivery. We aim to ensure that new knowledge is created and then used in policy and practice. In doing so, we support health system innovation and create new enterprise opportunities.”