How The James Lind Alliance Process Works

	STAGE 1- ESTABLISHING THE FOOT AND ANKLE PARTNERSHIP A Steering Group is formed, bringing together patients, carers, charities, healthcare professionals and research experts. The steering group agree a protocol for the project, outlining what will happen and when. They also agree on management arrangements and identify further partners to reach as wide an audience as possible.
	STAGE 2– YOU SHARE YOUR VIEWS No one understands foot and ankle problems better than the people who live with the condition or their families. The Steering Group will create a survey, using the James Lind Alliance guidance, to help understand which research questions these people as well as clinicians think are important to answer.
	STAGE 3- DATA MANAGEMENT The project data management group will gather up all the survey results and sort the answers intoresearch questions and themes. We will review what existing research is already done that might be able to answer some of the questions and prioritise questions where there is a lack of evidence.
	STAGE 4- INTERIM PRIORITISATION To check we've got the right message, the research questions we've created will be sent to survey respondents and partner organisations. Respondents will be asked to rank their top 10 unanswered questions and these will be combined to create a final shortlist.
	STAGE 5- FINAL PRIORITISATION At the end of the process we will hold a workshop for those who have taken part and partner organisations. This will be a platform to promote the agreed final list of the top ten unanswered research questions. We will share these results as widely as possible to help them guide future foot and ankle research.