G-I-N 2012
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Plenary Sessions


10 years of G-I-N: Lessons learned and future vision.

The opening plenary will be dedicated to the Network itself with an interactive podium discussion where past and present G-I-N Chairs and vice-chairs are invited to take part.


One guideline methodology for all?

Lectures will provide an overview of the DECIDE project, new developments in GRADE and challenges in developing health systems recommendations.

Do guidelines make a difference?

This session will address prerequisites and results starting with the presentation of the G-I-N position paper on standards in guidelines. In addition, we look forward to hearing about the effects of guidelines on quality of care and patient outcomes from Jeremy Grimshaw (University of Ottawa, Canadian Cochrane Network and Centre). Finally, we look forward to being provided with insights into performance measures methodology presented by Joachim Szecsenyi (AQUA-Institute for Applied Quality Improvement and Research in Health Care, Goettingen, Germany).

Patient involvement in guideline development

This topic will include a systematic review on the topic patient involvement methodology, presentation of the toolkit developed by G-I-N PUBLIC and the patient perspective: experience being a patient representative in a guideline development group.

Knowledge Translation 2020

The closing plenary will look into the future addressing technical innovations, the concept of shared decision making, patient decision aids and behavioural aspects of learning. We really look forward to hearing Sir Iain Chalmers in the closing lecture on barriers to implementation: research reporting bias and biased research agenda setting.

Plenary Speakers


Iain Chalmers
Coordinator, James Lind Initiative
Iain Chalmers practised as a clinician for seven years in the UK and the Gaza Strip, before becoming a full time health services researcher. Between 1978 and 1992 he was founding director of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit. Between 1992 and 2002, he was founding director of the UK Cochrane Centre, which convened the meeting at which the Cochrane Collaboration was inaugurated. Since 2003, he has coordinated the James Lind Initiative to promote public and professional acknowledgement of the need to address uncertainties about the effects of treatments. He is coordinating editor of The James Lind Library, Testing Treatments Interactive.



Glyn Elwyn
Physician Researcher, Visiting Professor, Senior Scientist, Dartmouth College
Glyn Elwyn, is a physician-researcher, currently Visiting Professor and Senior Scientist at the Dartmouth Health Care Delivery Science Center and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Dartmouth College, USA. He also holds the following positions: Distinguished Research Chair at Cardiff University and Visiting Chairs at the Scientific Institute for Quality of Healthcare, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Netherlands and at the University of Maastricht, Netherlands. After completing a BA, he qualified in medicine. He completed a Masters in Medical Education and a Doctorate under the guidance of Richard Grol in the Netherlands. He leads interdisciplinary research teams that deploy a range of investigative methods. His research examines the implementation of shared decision making, user-centred design of patient decision support and the integration of these into routine health care. His current focus in on the development, use and evaluation of Option Grids. He co-chairs the International Patient Decision Aids Standards Collaboration. He has developed the OPTION instrument to measure shared decision making and the International Family Practice Maturity Matrix: a measure of organisational development in primary care. He is the co-editor of 'Shared decision making: Evidence Based Patient Choice' (Oxford University Press, 2nd edition 2009).


Dr Jeremy Grimshaw
Director, Canadian Cochrane Centre
Dr Jeremy Grimshaw received a MBChB (MD equivalent) from the University of Edinburgh, UK. He trained as a family physician prior to undertaking a PhD in health services research at the University of Aberdeen. He moved to Canada in 2002. His research focuses on the evaluation of interventions to disseminate and implement evidence-based practice. Dr. Grimshaw is a Senior Scientist, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, a Full Professor in the Department of Medicine, University of Ottawa and a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Health Knowledge Transfer and Uptake. He is Director of the Canadian Cochrane Centre and Co-ordinating Editor of the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care group. He is also the Principal Investigator of Knowledge Translation Canada (KT CANADA), a CIHR and CFI funded interdisciplinary network of over 50 knowledge translation researchers from six academic health science centres in three provinces. He has over 350 peer reviewed publications.


Dr Sophie Hill
Head, Centre for Health Communication and Participation, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
Sophie Hill PhD is the Head of the Centre for Health Communication and Participation at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. The Centre's mission is to improve communication with and participation by consumers and carers through evidence-informed policy and decision making. She is the Co-ordinating Editor of the Cochrane Consumers and Communication Review Group and her research interests are systematic reviews and patients’ experiences. Sophie has been working in academic, community and policy settings since 1987 to put a ‘consumer perspective’ on health issues.


Dr Roman Jaeschke
Professor, McMaster University
Dr Jaeschke, professor in the Departments of Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics (CE&B) at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, completed MD in Kraków, Poland in 1981. His subsequent training included Doctor of Medicine in Pharmacology (Heidelberg, Germany), Internal Medicine specialty (McMaster) and MSc in the Department of CE&B (McMaster). He works clinically full time in critical care environment and participates in CPG development in this area. His goal is to apply GRADE system across the spectrum of CPG in his clinical field. He has co-authored over 100 peer reviewed publications and over 40 book chapters.



Loes Knaapen
Co-Chair, G-I-N PUBLIC
Loes Knaapen is Co-Chair of the Guidelines International Network for Patient and Public Involvement Working Group (G-I-N PUBLIC) and a PhD candidate at the Sociology department of McGill University in Canada. She has a Master's Degree from the University of Amsterdam and was a CIHR Strategic Training Fellow. Her doctoral research is a qualitative study of the production of Clinical Practice Guidelines, for which she examined the Guidelines International Network and other guideline institutions. The resulting dissertation, focusing on the justification and regulation of guidelines at local, national and international levels, will be completed in the summer of 2012.



Simon Lewin
Senior Researcher, Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services & Medical Research Council of South Africa
Simon Lewin is a senior researcher at the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services and the Medical Research Council of South Africa. His work is largely within the field of implementation research, including systematic reviews of complex health interventions; the evaluation of strategies for changing professional and consumer behaviours; and methods for qualitative evidence synthesis. He is currently working on several reviews on ‘task shifting’; on evidence-based strategies for improving communication about childhood vaccination; and on supporting research evidence use in low- and middle-income countries. He is an editor for the Cochrane Consumers and Communication and Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Review Groups.


Jürgen Matzat
Diplom-Psychologe, Kontaktstelle für Selbsthilfegruppen
Jürgen Matzat has a degree in psychology and a licence as a psychotherapist (which he does not practise). He started his professional career as a researcher (on self-help groups) at the university hospital, department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, in Giessen / Germany in 1977. Ten years later he became director of a self-help centre (clearinghouse) embedded in the same department. In 1982 he was co-founder of a national association for the promotion and support of self-help groups, which in 2004 became one of four organizations accredited by the Federal Ministry of Health to nominate “well informed persons” to represent patient interests in the so-called “Federal Joint Committee” (http://www.english.g-ba.de/) , the highest decision making body in Germany’s health system. Jürgen Matzat was nominated for the sub-committee on psychotherapy. Through this position he was asked to participate in a number of guideline working groups (e. g. on depression, anxiety, psychosomatic consultation / liaison service).


Victor M. Montori
Professor of Medicine and Director of Knowledge and Evaluation Research Unit, Mayo Clinic
Victor M. Montori, MD, MSc is a diabetologist and health services researcher. He is the lead investigator of the Knowledge and Evaluation Research Unit and a Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He serves as Director of the Healthcare Delivery Research Program at the Mayo Clinic Center for the Science of Healthcare Delivery. Victor is interested in healthcare delivery and outcomes for patients with chronic disease. Victor is on the Editorial Boards of Annals of Internal Medicine, has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed publications on his areas of interest.




Amir Qaseem, MD, PhD, MHA, FACP
Director, Clinical Policy, Medical Education Division, American College of Physicians
Dr Amir Qaseem is Director of the Department of Clinical Policy at the American College of Physicians (ACP). Dr Qaseem is responsible for leading the American College of Physicians' evidence-based medicine and clinical practice guidelines program, one of the oldest programs in the United States, writing of the clinical guidelines, and overseeing the College’s Clinical Guidelines Committee. Dr Qaseem is also in charge of directing the ACP's Performance Measurement program. Dr Qaseem’s work includes development and implementation of ACP’s quality improvement and educational programs. He has been a member of the G-I-N Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of the G-I-N Trustees since August 2010.



Joachim Szecsenyi
Professor and Medical Director, Department of General Practice and Health Services Research, University of Heidelberg Hospital
Joachim Szecsenyi is Professor and Medical Director at the Department of General Practice and Health Services Research, University of Heidelberg Hospital. He is also co-founder and director of the Institute for Applied Quality Improvement and Research in Health Care (AQUA) in Goettingen. This organisation -among other activities- is a contractor for the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) and is responsible for the nationwide program for hospital benchmarking and for cross-sectoral quality improvement. Dr. Szecsenyi has 25 years of experience with quality of care research and health services research in primary medical care, hospitals and care networks. His work comprises 10 books and more than 250 scientific publications. From 2001-2006 he was president of the European Association for Quality in Primary Care (Equip). From 1995-2010 he was involved in the guideline program of the German College of Family Physicians (DEGAM). He was a practising physician in a rural family practice for almost 10 years.

Dr Shaun Treweek
Senior Lecturer and Assistant Director, University of Dundee and NHS Tayside.
Shaun is a senior lecturer in the University of Dundee’s Medical School and Assistant Director of the Tayside Clinical Trials Unit. He currently co-leads an EC FP7 project (DECIDE) that aims to improve the way research evidence is presented in guidelines. The work is based on GRADE and will involve collaboration with health professionals, consumers and policymakers to provide guideline presentations of evidence and recommendations that are accessible and relevant to each audience. Other research looks at improving the applicability of trial results, trial recruitment and evaluating complex interventions prior to full-scale trials.



Madeleine Wang
Patient Advocate
Madeleine Wang is married with four children and lives in Leicestershire, England. Her interest in consumer representation originates primarily from experiences of voluntary work and as a carer of chronically ill family members. In the past 18 years, she has contributed to the development of many evidence based national professional standards and guidelines.

Madeleine actively supports patient and consumer representation in British medical professional bodies. She is passionate about working with organisations, which promote purposive health related consumer involvement through the development of tools, activities and training, and which is sincere, creative, meaningful and enduring.