Presenting evidence-based health information for people with multiple sclerosis: the IN-DEEP project protocol

This project is an Australian-Italian collaboration between researchers, MS societies and people with MS. Using a four-stage mixed methods design, a model will be developed for presenting evidence-based health information on the Internet for people with MS and their families. This evidence-based health information will draw upon systematic reviews of MS interventions from The Cochrane Library. Each stage of the project will build on the last. After conducting focus groups with people with MS and their family members (Stage 1), we will develop a model for summarising and presenting Cochrane MS reviews that is integrated with supporting information to aid understanding and decision making. This will be reviewed and finalised with people with MS, family members, health professionals and MS Society staff (Stage 2), before being uploaded to the Internet and evaluated (Stages 3 and 4).This project aims to produce accessible and meaningful evidence-based health information about MS for use in the varied decision making and management situations people encounter in everyday life. It is expected that the findings will be relevant to broader efforts to provide evidence-based health information for patients and the general public. The international collaboration also permits exploration of cultural differences that could inform international practice.Systematic reviews represent the highest level of evidence of the effectiveness of health care interventions [1]. Historically, it has been clinicians who have used evidence from systematic reviews of controlled trials to stay abreast of current research and inform their practice [2]. Increasingly, however, evidence-based health information, including systematic reviews, is also being provided to lay audiences [3].A recognised source of high quality evidence is the Cochrane Collaboration [4]. Cochrane systematic reviews summarise evidence from trials on the effects of treatments (medicines, surgery, rehabilitation), and behavioura