CUE: Consumer Voices in Evidence-Based Healthcare

Education & Training

Free online courses

Understanding Evidence-based Healthcare: A Foundation for Action – Course for Physicians

Developers: Kay Dickersin, Musa Mayer

Opportunities for Consumer Engagement

Partnership Clearinghouse

CUE Partnership Clearinghouse Opportunities for consumer involvement in research implementation (e.g. guidelines panels, surveys, conferences, workshops, and more).

Get Involved

News & Events

CUE Virtual Sessions — recordings and summaries of online sessions for consumer advocates.
Annual Meeting Reports — reports and lay summaries from past membership meetings.
Meeting Presentations — agendas and slides from annual meetings and summits.
Other Events — workshops on involving patients in guideline development.

Who We Are

CUE — Consumers United for Evidence-based Healthcare — is a coalition of consumer health advocacy organizations and individual consumer advocates who share a common commitment to making healthcare decisions that are grounded in the best available evidence. Our members represent patients, family caregivers, and the organizations that serve them, and together they bring the everyday experience of illness, treatment, and caregiving into conversations that have traditionally been dominated by researchers, clinicians, and policymakers. We exist because evidence-based healthcare is only as strong as the range of voices shaping it.

CUE was built on the conviction that consumers are not passive recipients of health research but essential partners in it. When patients and advocates help set research priorities, review study results, and sit on guideline panels, the questions asked become more relevant and the answers become more useful. Our work therefore focuses on building the skills, confidence, and connections consumers need in order to take part meaningfully — not as tokens, but as informed participants with a distinct and valuable perspective.

As a coalition, we work in partnership with academic institutions, professional bodies, and international networks dedicated to evidence-based practice. That partnership model means our members are connected to the wider movement for trustworthy health information while keeping their own organizational independence and their own constituency's priorities at the centre of what they do.

Strengthening the Voice of Consumers in Healthcare Research

A great deal of health research is produced without meaningful input from the people it is meant to serve. CUE works to change that by training consumer advocates to understand research methods, to read and interpret study findings critically, and to contribute confidently to the committees and processes where research agendas are decided. Strengthening the consumer voice is not simply a matter of inviting more people into the room; it is a matter of making sure those people arrive prepared, supported, and respected.

We also provide leadership within the evidence-based healthcare community itself, arguing for transparent reporting, plain-language summaries of research, and genuine consumer involvement at every stage of the research cycle — from priority setting and study design through to dissemination. Our advocacy emphasizes that consumers should be able to find, understand, and use the evidence that affects their own care, and that health systems have a responsibility to make that possible.

Through our Partnership Clearinghouse, we connect consumer organizations with researchers, funders, and methodological experts who are looking for genuine collaboration. The Clearinghouse helps both sides find the right partner and understand what a fair, workable partnership looks like — including clear expectations about time, compensation, roles, and the way consumer input will be used.

Learning and Participating Through CUE

One of the most practical ways CUE supports its members is through free online courses. Our flagship offering, Understanding Evidence-based Healthcare: A Foundation for Action — Course for Physicians, has been developed to help clinicians and consumer advocates build a shared vocabulary around study design, bias, systematic reviews, and the application of evidence to real clinical decisions. A shared language matters: when consumers and clinicians understand the same concepts, they can discuss trade-offs, uncertainty, and preference honestly rather than talking past one another.

These courses are free and open to participants from a wide range of backgrounds, reflecting our belief that evidence literacy should never be gated behind cost or credentials. Participants who complete the training go on to serve on guideline panels, join research advisory groups, review grant applications, and support their own organizations in making evidence-informed decisions. Many remain engaged with CUE afterwards, contributing to our network and mentoring newer advocates.

Whether you are a patient advocate looking for training, a consumer organization seeking a research partner, or a researcher who wants to involve the public in your work, we invite you to explore the resources on this site and get in touch. CUE is strongest when its membership reflects the full diversity of people who rely on healthcare, and there is a place in this work for anyone willing to bring their experience and their curiosity to it.

Strengthening the Voice of Consumers

Providing Leadership in Healthcare Research

Free online courses

Understanding Evidence-based Healthcare: A Foundation for Action – Course for Physicians

Partnership Clearinghouse

Who We Are

Strengthening the Voice of Consumers in Healthcare Research

Learning and Participating Through CUE