[Patients and physicians creating a research agenda together: the method of the British James Lind Alliance]

The British James Lind Alliance (JLA) has developed a method to allow practitioners, patients and family members together to develop a research agenda for a disease or a form of treatment. In a 'priority setting partnership', they gradually establish a top-10 list of the most important unanswered research questions. Input from patients and their relatives is given the same weight when determining priorities as that from practitioners. More than 50 of these top-10 lists have been created so far, one of which was created in the Netherlands. The JLA method combines elements of the two very different methods currently prevailing in the Netherlands: the dialog model, developed by the VU and the 'health care evaluation agenda', developed by the Dutch Association of Medical Specialists. The JLA method is quite practicable and leads to new research questions. The biggest advantage is that it leads to a dialogue between creators and users of knowledge about what the relevant research questions are.