Abstract
BackgroundConsensus methods such as the Delphi technique have been used widely for research priority setting in health care. Within pre-hospital emergency medicine, such approaches have helped to establish national and international research priorities. However, in a dynamic field such as pre-hospital critical care, it is necessary to regularly review the continued relevance of findings. Further, considering the variability between pre-hospital critical care providers, it is also important to determine priorities at the local level. Essex & Herts Air Ambulance (EHAAT) sought to develop a five-year research strategy that aligns with their clinical work streams and organisational priorities.MethodsAll staff and Trustees were invited to participate in an online Delphi study with three Rounds. The Delphi was administered via email and Online Surveys software. The first Round invited participants to submit up to five research questions that they felt were of greatest importance to EHAAT to advance the care provided to patients. In Round 2, participants were asked to rate the importance of questions from Round 1, while Round 3 required participants to rank questions that were prioritised in Round 2 in order of importance.Results22 participants submitted a total of 86 research questions in Round 1, which were reduced to 69 questions following deduplication and refinement. 11 participants rated the importance of the questions in Round 2, resulting in 14 questions being taken forward to Round 3. Following the ranking exercise in Round 3, completed by 12 participants, a top five research priorities were identified. The question deemed most important was “How does a pre-hospital doctor-paramedic team affect the outcome of patients with severe head injuries?”.ConclusionsThe top five research priorities identified through the Delphi process will inform EHAAT’s research strategy. Findings suggest that there is still work to be done in addressing research priorities described in previous literature.
Highlights
Consensus methods such as the Delphi technique have been used widely for research priority setting in health care
Essex & Herts Air Ambulance (EHAAT) sought to develop a five-year research strategy that aligns with their clinical work streams and organisational priorities, using a bottom up approach to survey all staff members in the organisation
The length of time that these participants had been working with the organisation ranged from 3 weeks to 17 years
Summary
Consensus methods such as the Delphi technique have been used widely for research priority setting in health care. Essex & Herts Air Ambulance (EHAAT) sought to develop a five-year research strategy that aligns with their clinical work streams and organisational priorities. Consensus-based approaches have been used to set research priorities across the spectrum of healthcare settings, ranging from mental health nursing[1] and assisted dying[2] to pre-hospital emergency medicine.[3,4,5] Fevang and colleagues published a consensus report on the top five research priorities in physician-provided pre-hospital critical care, following a modified nominal group exercise with a European expert panel.[3] The prioritised areas for research were appropriate staffing and training and impact on outcomes, advanced airway management, definition of timings for key interventions, pre-hospital ultrasound and dispatch criteria for prehospital critical care services. Priority setting work in this field to date has tended to be at a national or international level.[3,4,5] As there exists considerable variability between HEMS organisations, for instance in composition of the medical team and the interventions delivered, it may be considered more appropriate to conduct local priority setting work within individual services
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