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HKBU researchers develop an international reporting checklist for interest-holder engagement in practice guidelines
30 June 2026
A study led by HKBU titled “Reporting Interest-Holder Engagement in Practice Guidelines: The RIGHT-MuSE Checklist” has been published in Annals of Internal Medicine. Led by Dr Xuan YU, Professor Zhaoxiang BIAN, and Professor Yaolong CHEN of the School of Chinese Medicine, the team worked with international experts from 12 countries to develop the RIGHT-MuSE checklist, which contains 11 items and enables practice guideline developers to transparently report the engagement of all interest-holders throughout the guideline development process.
Practice guidelines are an important basis for guiding the clinical practice of healthcare professionals. Engaging diverse categories of interest-holders in guideline development can enhance the uptake of recommendations and promote consideration of health equity. The World Health Organization also recommends the systematic engagement of relevant interest-holder groups across the guideline development process. Although the RIGHT (Reporting Items for Practice Guidelines in Healthcare) checklist is a comprehensive reporting tool for practice guidelines, it does not provide detailed guidance on reporting interest-holder engagement processes. To address this gap, a team at HKBU, in collaboration with the RIGHT working group and MuSE consortium (an international network of nearly 200 individuals interested in engagement in research and guidelines), developed the RIGHT-MuSE checklist, a reporting guideline for interest-holder engagement in practice guidelines.
A total of 32 experts from 12 countries, including principal investigators and researchers, healthcare professionals, editors of peer-reviewed journals, policymakers, payers for health research, and public and patient representatives, collaborated to develop the RIGHT‑MuSE checklist. Following consensus surveys and panel discussions, the final RIGHT-MuSE checklist comprises 11 items covering guidance used, methods of engagement, characteristics of interest-holders, evaluation of engagement, and conflicts of interest related to engagement. The study also provides a glossary of key terms and detailed explanations, elaborations, and examples for each item to support users in applying the checklist.
Interest-holders play a pivotal role in guideline development. They influence the scientific rigor, acceptability, and feasibility of recommendations and, by co‑designing dissemination and implementation strategies, further shape the implementation and dissemination of guidelines into real‑world practice. With the publication of the RIGHT-MuSE checklist, guideline developers can more comprehensively report interest-holder engagement in the development process, and guideline users can refer to the checklist to assess the rigor and transparency of guideline development in relation to interest-holder engagement as well as health equity. As a reporting tool that emphasizes practicality and transparency, RIGHT‑MuSE is poised to enhance comparability and consistency across guidelines, facilitate external review and information sharing, increase the uptake and adherence of guideline recommendations, and shift interest-holder engagement from “whether to engage” to “how to engage well.”