Peer Consultation: What, Why, When, Who, and How. J. Patterson, D. W. Briggs, and P. M. Nance, Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA)
Expert peer review has been used for a number of years to provide independent evaluation of risk assessment documents and conclusions. More recently, it has been suggested that a similar process of peer consultation would be helpful as well. Peer review is designed to provide expert advice independent from the authors, generally of a close to final product, with a result of agreement or disagreement with the conclusion(s). A peer consultation process might be useful earlier in a project’s development to elicit comments and suggestions from experts on the judgments and conclusions. A peer consultation might also offer a unique opportunity for the scientific community and the public to collaborate in the development of scientifically sound risk documentation. Building upon peer review experience, Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA) is developing a peer consultation program to explore additional ways to gain expert review and input for risk assessment documents, particularly those evaluating risks to children. This poster will describe the similarities and differences between peer review and peer consultation and discuss a number of key issues for peer consultation, including determining the usefulness of peer consultation for a particular project; timing; the roles of participants, observers and the public; report writing; and conflict of interest identification and management. Although this work has been funded in part by the U.S. EPA (cooperative agreement X-82916801), no official endorsement should be inferred.
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