Recent ExpertLens Projects

ExpertLens has been used in numerous projects in the United States, Canada, and Europe to engage large and diverse groups of stakeholders or seek input from experts with different areas and levels of expertise on a wide range of issues. Here is a sample of ExpertLens projects.

• Necessary infrastructure for high-consequence infectious diseases

  Goal: To determine minimum physical infrastructure and built environment recommendations for frontline acute care hospitals in the United States.
  Participants: 23 clinical and physical infrastructure experts.
  Funder: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  Client: Massachusetts General Hospital.

• The role of science labs in the general education curriculum

  Goal: To determine learning outcomes for students who are not majoring in biology.
  Participants: 64 college professors.
  Funder: National Science Foundation.
  Client: University of Alaska.

• Domestic abuse prevention in the armed forces

  Goal: To identify domestic abuse prevention strategies that are likely to be effective, feasible, and appropriate for the military setting.
  Participants: 80 military leaders, service providers, scholars, and survivor experts/advocates.
  Funder: Department of Defense.

• Informing the Development of Clinical Definitions of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) and Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome

  Goal: To solicit expert input on the criteria for defining neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) and neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS).
  Participants: 19 clinical experts on NAS and NOWS.
  Funder: The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health (OASH) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
  Publications: Article (JMIR Research Protocols), RAND Report, Article (Journal of Pediatrics).

• The Development of a Claims-Based Metric of Low-Value Prescribing in Older Adults

  Goal: To define key low-value prescribing practices and to develop a comprehensive metric of low-value prescribing for use among older adults.
  Participants: 15 clinical experts on low-value care or medication use in older adults.
  Funder: National Institutes of Health.
  Publication: Article (JAMA Network Open).

• Pain and Opioids in Patients with Advanced Cancer

  Goal: To understand how to best manage patients with cancer who are also struggling with opioid misuse or opioid use disorder.
  Participants: 120 clinical experts on palliative care and addiction medicine.
  Funder: Cambia Health Foundation.
  Client: University of Pittsburgh.
  Publication: Article (BMJ Open), Article (JAMA Network Open), Article (JAMA Oncology)

• The ADAPT Study

  Goal: To develop methodological guidance to support the adaptation, implementation and/or re-evaluation of complex population health interventions in new contexts.
  Participants: 66 international experts on conducting, funding, and publishing research on adapting population health interventions for evaluation or implementation in new contexts.
  Funder: Medical Research Council.
  Client: University of Glasgow.
  Publication: Article (BMJ Open)

• Standards for Care for Young Women with Heavy Menstrual Bleeding

  Goal: To establish care standards for young women with heavy menstrual bleeding and bleeding disorders.
  Participants: 39 clinicians representing hematology, adolescent medicine, and obstetrics-gynecology.
  Funder: Shire Development, LLC.
  Client: The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
  Publication: Article (Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis)

• Psychiatric Care Options for Individuals who are Gravely Disabled

  Goal: To identify strategies for expanding psychiatric care options in Los Angeles County for individuals who are, or are at risk of being, gravely disabled.
  Participants: 46 advocates, mental health court personnel, policy makers, researchers, and clinicians.
  Funder: Los Angeles Country Department of Mental Health.
  Client: University of California, Los Angeles.
  Publication: Article (Psychiatric Services).

• Non-Malignant Pain in Nursing Home Residents

  Goal: To generate real-world evidence regarding the risks and benefits of pharmacological pain management regimens.
  Participants: 48 nurses, geriatricians, researchers, pain specialists, nursing home administrators, and pharmacists.
  Funder: National Institutes of Health.
  Client: University of Massachusetts Medical School.
  Publication: Article (Drugs and Aging)

• Pregnancy Weight Gain

  Goal: To determine the range of pregnancy weight gain that is best for reducing the risk of an adverse birth outcome.
  Participants: 84 health professionals and 82 women who were pregnant or recently gave birth.
  Funder: National Institutes of Health.
  Client: University of Pittsburgh.
  Publications: Article (JMIR Research Protocols), Article (Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology).

• Machine Learning-Assisted Operational Planning

  Goal: To explore the technical feasibility and operational utility of applying state-of-the-art artificial intelligence and machine learning systems to military planning and command functions.
  Participants: 49 experts on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and operations research.
  Funder: US Air Force.

• Patient and Caregiver Engagement in Guideline Development

  Goal: To develop the RAND/PPMD Patient-Centeredness Method (RPM), a new online scalable approach to engaging patients and caregivers in the process of developing clinical care guidelines.
  Participants: 95 individuals with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and their caregivers.
  Funder: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.
  Publications: Article (JMIR Research Protocols), Article (Medical Decision Making), Article (The Patient - Patient-Centered Outcomes Research), Article (European Journal for Person Centered Healthcare), Article (European Journal for Person Centered Healthcare), Article (Value in Health), Article (Journal of Clinical Epidemiology)

• pSCANNER

  Goal: To engage stakeholders in the design of patient-centered scalable national network for effectiveness research (pSCANNER).
  Participants: 292 stakeholders, including patients, clinicians, and researchers.
  Funder: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.
  Publications: Article (Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association), Article (Journal of Clinical Epidemiology), Article (Medical Care)

• Gaps in Medicare Part D Self-Enrollment & Nursing Home Residents

  Goal: To develop a set of prescribing indicators measurable with available data from electronic nursing home databases by adapting the European-based 2014 STOPP/START criteria of potentially inappropriate and underused medications for the US setting.
  Participants: 17 pharmacists, nurses, researchers, and physicians.
  Funder: National Institute on Aging
  Publication: Article (Journal of the American Geriatric Society)

• Metrics to Assess the Impact of Federal R&D Investments

  Goal: To identify a core set of metrics that could be used across Federal agencies to evaluate and compare the impacts of R&D programs.
  Participants: 56 Federal government employees and researchers with expertise in evaluating Federal R&D programs.
  Funder: National Science Foundation.

• Research Ethics

  Goal: To determine the applicability of ethical principles of community-engaged research to translational science projects.
  Participants: 63 stakeholders with expertise in conducting different types of translational research.
  Funder: The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
  Publications: Article (Translational Research), Article (Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics)

• Patient Engagement in Care Planning and Design

  Goal: To identify best ways of engaging patients in the context of making outpatient care planning and design decisions at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
  Participants: 48 experts on involving patients in improving outpatient healthcare quality and care design decisions.
  Funder: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
  Publication: Article (Health Expectations)

• Key Performance Indicators for Evaluating Centralized Intake for Arthritis Care

  Goal: To develop key performance indicators for evaluating centralized intake for arthritis care in Alberta, Canada.
  Participants: 28 Canadian experts in the healthcare field.
  Funder: Alberta Innovates - Health Solutions.
  Client: University of Calgary.
  Publications: Article (Arthritis Research & Therapy), Article (Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice)

• Performance Measures for Inflammatory Arthritis

  Goal: To develop system-level performance measures for evaluating models of care for inflammatory arthritis in Canada.
  Participants: 43 Canadian experts in the healthcare field.
  Funder: Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
  Client: Arthritis Alliance of Canada.
  Publications: Article (The Journal of Rheumatology), Article (Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice)

• Cardiovascular Quality Indicators for Rheumatoid Arthritis

  Goal: To develop the first set of quality indicators for cardiovascular primary prevention in rheumatoid arthritis.
  Participants: 37 international experts in the healthcare field.
  Funder: Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
  Client: University of Calgary.
  Publications: Article (The Journal of Rheumatology), Editorial (The Journal of Rheumatology, PDF), Article (Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice)

• Suicide Prevention in Emergency Departments

  Goal: Establish expert consensus regarding the identification of suicidal patients in EDs who can safely receive a discharge disposition.
  Participants: 62 emergency medicine and suicide prevention experts.
  Funder: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
  Client: Suicide Prevention Resource Center.

• Societal Trends

  Goal: To forecast global societal trends in six domains though 2030 and explore their implications for the European Union.
  Participants: 222 international experts.
  Funder: The European Commission’s Bureau of European Policy Advisors (BEPA).
  Client: RAND Europe.
  Publications: RAND Report, Commentary (Bureau of European Policy Advisors Monthly Bulletin)

• Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI)

  Goal: Identify definitional features of CQI in health care.
  Participants: 119 researchers and practitioners.
  Funder: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
  Publications: Article (BMC Medical Research Methodology), Article (International Journal for Quality in Health Care)

• Suicide Prevention

  Goal: Prioritize National Suicide Prevention research goals.
  Participants: 511 researchers, providers, agency administrators, and people personally touched by suicide.
  Funder: American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
  Publications: Overview of Results (actionallianceforsuicideprevention.org, PDF), Article (American Journal of Preventive Medicine), Article (Health Expectations)

• The Future of Mobility

  Goal: To validate two scenarios about the future of mobility in the United States in 2030.
  Participants: 22 international experts.
  Funder: ifmo: Institute for Mobility Research.
  Publication: RAND Report

• HIV/AIDS

  Goal: Forecast the adoption of antiretroviral-based prevention strategies to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
  Participants: 47 international experts on HIV/AIDS.
  Funder: Merck & Co.
  Publications: RAND Report, Project Summary

• Terrorism Litigation

  Goal: Predict the likelihood of several hotel bombing scenarios.
  Participants: 41 lawyers from two law firms.
  Funder: RAND Corporation.

• H1N1 Influenza

  Goal: Evaluate the federal response to the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic.
  Participants: 415 federal employees from different departments and agencies.
  Funder: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

• Media

  Goal: Forecast the future of a UK hyperlocal media sector.
  Participants: 64 experts on hyperlocal media from around the world.
  Funder: The National Endowment for Science, Technology, and the Arts (UK).