Table 2 Key Project Deliverables

Tier I

Recruitment Strategies Plan

Preliminary agreement among partnership about plans to broaden the community of patients and other stakeholders who may be interested in participating in or supporting project efforts. This document also clarified types of individuals and organizations we needed to recruit that would optimize project success while also meeting expectations of our funding agency. Obtaining diverse perspectives from patient, clinician, researcher, and other stakeholders was vitally important.

Governance Document

To describe partnership infrastructure and optimize stakeholder engagement during project. This document consisted of several components including: 1) vision, mission, and purpose statements; 2) membership requirements; 3) membership expectations; 4) decision making processes; 5) operational guidelines; and 6) communication between partners. Several drafts were circulated until consensus agreement^a was achieved with expectations for future modification as needed. Operational accountability statement: “Each member, from researcher to patient, is accountable to the Partnership, to each other and to the vision, mission and purpose of the Partnership. We each have a responsibility to suit up, show up and speak up.”

CER Ideas

Focused list of comparative effectiveness research ideas relevant to musculoskeletal pain and reflective of all stakeholder perspectives was developed. Partners were asked to brainstorm about potential ideas prior to future formal meetings and subsequent literature review activity.

Formal Advisory Board

Consisted of a diverse mix of patients (n = 3), clinicians (n = 2), and researchers (n = 2) that were identified by project lead (JMB) as those who were ideal for providing valuable contributions based on early team interactions. Advisory Board member roles included: voting on key partnership decisions, communicating with other potential collaborators, and continued contribution of intellectual perspectives during formal meetings and discussions.

Tier II

Communication Plan

To mature and formalize partnerships developed through the Recruitment Strategies Plan (Tier I). This document described how partnership will communicate internally and externally, who will be responsible for activities, how often will communication occur, and what messages and modes of communication will be used. Expectations were this document would be modified over time.

CER Question

To develop a formal CER question, the PICOTS framework was used to describe the study population, intervention, comparator, outcomes, timeframe, and setting. Patient, clinician, and research stakeholders played an active role in this process.

Growth & Sustainability Plan

The intention of this document was to serve as a guide for our partnership to discuss and complete its plan to communicate with and use resources from other stakeholders beyond P2P funding with description about how these partners would help support future efforts (e.g., grant proposals).

Proposal Opportunity Plan

Served to track potential funding opportunities, pending applications, etc.