The Decision Focused Public Engagement model was developed by Roger Bernier, a U.S. Department of Health official, who sought a way to engage the public and involve 'ordinary citizens' in formulating health policy regarding ethical issues. The model stands out with its focus on only 'non-expert' participants, making a clear a separation between science scientific (or medical) facts and ethicsethical values.

The organizers carefully selected the participants using both “inclusion” and “exclusion”. They selected participants that would reflect and represent the spectrum of the citizenry, while purposefully choosing participants without a medical or professionally-related background to focus solely on society’s values as opposed to the empirical findings. In this way, the organizers attempted to engineer their participating public to express norms that reflected the kind of public the organizers wished to reach. Caduff writes that this shows how publics must manifest themselves in “the correct form” to deal with a particular issue.