Home > Using Research > What to do when no methods are available?

This chapter has provided practical advice on how to incorporate research evidence about patient views in the guideline process using examples. There are many more examples and more detailed guidance available in the references. However, there are still gaps in these methods, and guideline developers may need to develop novel methods when there are gaps. We suggest the following if no guidance is available:

  • be transparent about what was done or not done
  • document in the guideline or evidence syntheses what was done
  • determine if it is possible to adapt methods for including stakeholder views from other fields to methods for including patient views in guideline development
  • conduct research into what does and does not work, and
  • share experiences.