Advisory groups

Clinical Reviewers
For each review, clinicians with relevant training and experience were asked to comment on each study focusing on clinical relevance and practical issues. A clinical commentary framework, incorporating open and closed questions, was developed specifically for this. Summaries of commentaries are provided in the tables of studies and incorporated into the 'Further Information' section of each review, where appropriate.

The project had four advisory groups as detailed below

Project Advisory Group (PAG)

The PAG provided advice to the whole project on strategic issues including:

• Composition of specialist advisory groups
• Relationship of project data to other information management systems
• Development of appropriate links with other info systems
• Income generation for the sustainability
• Advertising and marketing

The PAG consisted of representatives from the following organisations/groups:

• CRD - Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at York
• NeLH – National Electronic Library for Health
• Cochrane Collaboration
• CAM practitioners
• Patient group

Specialist Advisory Groups
The Cancer and Mental Health Review Advisory Groups consisted of specialists in each area to be reviewed and act as a panel advising on aspects of the project specifically related to the particular topic.

Specialist Advisory Group - Cancer
The Cancer SpAG consisted of specialists and representatives from the following areas:

• Palliative Medicine
• Oncology
• Nursing
• Complementary and Alternative practice
• Clinical research
• Consumers

Specialist Advisory Group – Mental Health
The Mental Health SpAG consisted of specialists and representatives from the following areas:

• Psychiatry
• Epidemiology
• Cochrane
• Psychiatric research
• Psychiatric practice
• Complementary and alternative medicine practice
• Pharmacy
• Mental health users