NorthStar is available as either a Windows Help file or a platform-independent HTML version that can be viewed using a browser: both versions can be downloaded by clicking on the links at the bottom of the page (under 'Related content'). NorthStar contains 18 main sections that include information on, for example:
- How to establish priorities
- How to involve consumers
- How to identify, appraise and adapt guidelines
- How to compare current practice to desired practice
- Which interventions work, and when?
- How to design interventions
- How to write a high quality protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial
- How to do an economic evaluation
- Examples of full protocols, evaluations, research reports, data collection forms and informed consent forms
- Software to help with sample size calculations and project management
Suggestions for improvements are welcome and should be addressed to northstar_comments@mac.com
NB. Each file is around 12Mb in size and may take 5 to 10 minutes to download. It is probably best to save the file to disk rather than try to open it directly when downloading.
Some organisations' IT systems may have default security settings that initially block NorthStar's content because it looks like information from an unknown publisher. You can usually unblock the content by simply clicking choosing to show the content when asked in the dialog box that pops up in Windows.