A case study of using community-based consensus methods to facilitate shared decision-making among a spinal cord injury network.

The study is a single case report of a specific network (Ontario SCI Alliance) and may not be generalizable to other contexts. The response rate for Survey 1 was low (15%), which may limit the representativeness of the views. Demographic data were not collected for retreat participants, so it is unclear who attended and whether the retreat included the same diverse perspectives as the surveys. The retreat was held before the COVID-19 pandemic, so the findings on in-person engagement may not apply to current virtual or hybrid models. The study did not evaluate the long-term impact of the policy changes or the sustainability of the engagement method beyond the initial strategic plan.

The authors declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and publication. The study was funded by Mitacs, a Canadian research funding organization. No specific conflicts of interest with commercial entities are reported, but the partnership involved Spinal Cord Injury Ontario and the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation.

Do not interpret this paper as evidence that a Delphi method improves clinical outcomes or patient care. It is a descriptive case study of a policy-making process. The 'successes' reported are based on the perceptions of five interviewees and the fact that policy changes occurred, not on rigorous evaluation of the method's effectiveness or impact on patient health.