The idea behind MAGIC (Making Grade the Irresistible Choice) was conceived by Per Olav Vandvik, Linn Brandt and Gordon Guyatt back in 2009, with Thomas Agoritsas soon joining as another co-founder. Being practicing physicians dedicated to evidence- based medicine we felt an urgent need to solve problems with clinical practice guidelines. We believed this was possible through great advances in standards and methods for guidelines, combined with the latest web technology, intuitive design and emphasis on open and linked digitally structured data.
MAGIC started out as a research and innovation program to solve the challenges. This materialised in the launch of MAGICapp in 2013: our advanced online authoring and publication platform for guidelines, evidence summaries and decision aids. MAGIC was at the same time developed into an independent Norwegian non-profit organisation, in order to offer MAGICapp as a “Software as a Service” through license agreements with guideline organisations across the world. Generous research and innovation grants, widespread international collaboration with substantial in-kind resources and income from customers has made it possible for MAGICapp to see the light of day and to be continuously be improved, based on feedback from our users.
We realised the need to solve challenges beyond what trustworthy decision support created in MAGICapp can offer. This resulted in an ambitious long-term vision of a “Digital and Trustworthy Evidence Ecosystem” back in 2014. The Evidence Ecosystem now represents a mature conceptual framework, with the ultimate goal of increasing value and reducing waste in health care. Our work is inspiring health care systems around the world in their effort to create a new infrastructure for the production and use of best current evidence in policy and practice.
Within this framework – and with MAGICapp as a core platform – we continue to spearhead research and innovation together with a wonderful team of international collaborators sharing our vision. One example is the BMJ Rapid Recommendations, demonstrating successful solutions for evidence synthesis and guidelines through a collaborative network approach in wonderful partnership with BMJ.
Our independent non-profit Norwegian MAGIC Evidence Ecosystem Foundation was set up in 2018 to provide sustainable and professional services to our customers (e.g. MAGICapp) while pursuing our evidence ecosystem vision through continued research and innovation.
CEO / Chair of the Board
Affiliations: Dept. of Medicine, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Oslo, Norway. Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Norway. Researcher, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
Deputy CEO / Board Member
Projects: BMJ Rapid Recommendations, SHARE-IT Decision Aids and Multiple Comparisons.
Affiliations: Division of General Internal Medicine, University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland. Assistant professor, McMaster University.
CTO / Board Member
Projects: Integrations, Data and EHR (PLUGGED-IN)
Affiliations: Dept. of Medicine, Diakonhjemmet Oslo, Norway.
CSO / Board Member
Affiliations: Dept. of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Canada.
Client Care Director
Projects: BMJ Rapid Recommendations
Affiliations: Dept. of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Canada.
Senior Researcher
Projects: Decision Support Systems
Affiliations: National Institute of Public Health Norway
Senior Executive Assistant
Researcher, MAGIC support
Projects: BMJ Rapid Recommendations
Affiliations: Dept. of Medicine, University of Toronto, Canada.
Researcher
Affiliations: Department of Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University
Researcher
Projects: Enhancing the Evidence Ecosystem (E3)
Researcher
Projects: BMJ Rapid Recommendations
Affiliations: Dept. of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Canada. Dept. of Pharmacy/Evidence-based Pharmacy Center, West China Second University Hospital, Sichuan University, China.
Researcher
Projects: SHARE-IT Decision Aids and Multiple Comparisons
Affiliations: Dept. of Medicine, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Norway. PhD student, HELSAM, University of Oslo, Norway.
Researcher
Projects: BMJ Rapid Recommendations
Affiliations: Dept. of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Canada. Dept. of Medicine, University of Toronto, Canada.
Junior researcher
Projects: MATCH-IT decision support
Affiliations: Medical student Dept. of Medicine University of Oslo Norway.
Researcher
Projects: BMJ Rapid Recommendations
Affiliations: Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, McMaster University, Canada
Researcher
Projects: Dynamic Updating and Search (DYNAM-IT)
Affiliations: Dept. of Medicine, Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital, Norway. PhD student, HELSAM, University of Oslo, Norway.
Researcher
Projects: Precision oncology in the Evidence Ecosystem
Affiliations: Dept of Hematology and Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
Researcher, Network Meta-Analysis
Affiliations: Dept. of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, Canada.
Designer/Developer
New Window
Nesodden, Norway
Developer
Fullstack Systems
San Francisco, USA
Developer
Fullstack Systems
Washington, USA
Designer / Developer
Fullstack Systems
Portland, USA