Partnership approaches between health services, clinicians, consumers, researchers, administrators, and policy makers have been identified as critical to achieving transformational change.
A common methodology that the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA) has used to engage stakeholders, where face-to-face contact is not possible, is the Delphi method, which has primarily been used to obtain and integrate the opinions of a group of individuals about a complex problem.
This Perspectives Brief describes the key features of the Delphi method, and then discusses AHHA’s considerations when designing engagement activities, including the strengths we leverage, the risks that must be mitigated, and opportunities for adaptation to meet the unique purpose of engagement.