An overview

Consensix is designed to facilitate the collaboration of a large group of experts in the process of making collective decisions

• It is particularly well suited when such experts are widely distributed geographically or there exist other barriers to face-to-face meetings.
• It provides a structured framework by which consensus may be assessed and expert opinion can be shared within groups
• It can be accessed using standard web browsing software on a variety of platforms.

Consensus methodology

The Delphi Technique is a widely used, validated qualitative research methodology with over 30 years of experience. It has been successfully used in many specialist areas including healthcare policy research.

A full explanation of the technique and its delivery by computerised collaboration software can be found at http://web.njit.edu/~turoff/Papers/delphi3.html.

The application design

Consensix provides a highly structured design to organise and present questions to defined groups and provide additional information to aid the decision making process.

• It allows users to register online, maintain their account and provides governance procedures to allow for the validation of the participants.
• It allows for the incorporation of moderators recommendations, visual aids and other attachments that may assist the users’ understanding of the issues.
• Users responses and comments are retained in a data structure which allows for the auditing and reporting on decisions made.