The IDEAL Collaboration has joined the Network.
The IDEAL Collaboration is an international group working on ways to improve the reliability, relevance and fundability of research in surgery, medical devices and other complex or innovative interventions in healthcare.
The IDEAL Collaboration grew out of an earlier initiative known as the Balliol Group of methodologists and clinicians who held a series of conferences at Balliol College, Oxford in 2007-2009. Their discussions led to the development of a new IDEAL Framework for describing the stages of development of surgical and interventional innovations, and a series of recommendations about how methodology and reporting of research at each of these stages could be improved.
Achievement of improved design, conduct, and reporting of surgical research will need concerted action by journal editors, funders of health care and research, device manufacturers, regulatory bodies, and professional societies. IDEAL wishes to develop collaborations with all these groups to achieve these goals.
Partnership with the Oxford Academic Health Science Network is indeed an IDEAL collaboration.