Consensus Conference

The consensus conference is a type of forum specifically designed for citizen (or citizen and expert) discussion and communication about issues in science, technology, and health that confront society. The original consensus conference model was [Page 182]based on an approach to medical research assessment originating in the health care sector in the United States during the 1960s. It was (and is) used to bring experts together to arrive at a consensus about the state of the research evidence on a given medical or research question. This process was adapted in Denmark by the Danish Board of Technology in the 1980s, introducing the use of a citizens' panel to the process of technology assessment. This version brings together a lay citizen panel and an expert panel to provide an opportunity for lay citizens to deliberate on a technology based on learning about the topic, hearing from and questioning a range of experts, deliberating, and then coming up with recommendations and key issues that need to be addressed.

There are two premises underlying the concept of the citizens' consensus conference. First is the idea that citizens are entitled to a say on issues that affect their lives. In the past, science and technology were frequently treated as an exception to this value and were left to the domain of technical experts. Consensus conferences are among a range of models of public deliberation that have been designed to bring science and technology back into the public domain. These deliberative models of technology assessment include a wide variety of approaches: citizen juries, deliberative polls, scenario workshops, and other forms of public engagement that incorporate both discussions and learning via engagement with information resources and with specialists. The deliberative poll combines the features of a public opinion poll (with a randomly selected group of around a thousand citizen participants) and processes of deliberation. A scenario workshop involves citizens (or some mix of citizens, stakeholder representatives, and policy decision makers) in considering different visions or scenarios of possible futures or discussing solution options to particular problems. New ideas and recommendations for future actions or policies are discussed. Citizen juries are based on selection of citizens in much the same way a legal jury is chosen and invited to hear evidence on a community or policy issue and to deliver a judgment.

The second premise of consensus conferences is the idea that laypeople are able to grasp and deal with complicated technical matters and can bring valuable insights that may not otherwise be considered by experts.

The consensus conference procedure typically involves four sets of actors: an advisory committee, a lay panel, an expert panel, and a project management team. The panel of laypeople is composed of citizens of divergent backgrounds. The expert panel is defined broadly to incorporate not just scientific experts, but experts from areas that have relevance for a given technology topic, such as legal scholars or practitioners, regulators, ethi-cists, occupational experts (for example, farmers), experts from different interest or advocacy organizations, or people with experiential expertise (for example, transplant patients). Conflicting expert views are sometimes juxtaposed.

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