What is the Neonatal Priority Setting Partnership?
A group of healthcare professionals and parent representatives came together in 2022-3 to oversee a process to identify and prioritise research questions that can be tested in randomised trials in UK neonatal care. Answers to the questions submitted should improve neonatal care and reduce unwanted variations in practice.
What were the results?
All eligible questions were amalgamated into a final list of prioritised research questions. These can be viewed here.
How were the questions prioritised?
The partnership invited submissions of research questions using a question building tool. They then reviewed the submitted questions and developed a final list (removing any duplicates, questions that have already been answered, and those out of scope.)
The perinatal community then prioritised the questions in order of importance by completing surveys.
Supporting Resources
During the process there were various supporting materials developed to encourage a wide range of stakeholders to get involved in the process, even those that were not familiar with developing questions in a PICO format.
Developing a PICO Question (Video)
My PICO Question - Example from an AHP (Video)
Webinar: Prioritising Neonatal Research Questions (Video)
What happened next?
The protocol and full results were published in 2023 and disseminated to stakeholders including research organisations such as the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
The results of this prioritisation process will help guide future funding and development of interventional trials to ensure that they address questions of clinical import, change clinical practice and reduce research waste.
Who has been involved?
All those invested in neonatal care were encouraged to take part in the prioritisation process (including but not limited to) doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, parents, former patients and researchers.
Steering Group Members
- Cheryl Battersby - Academic Neonatologist, BAPM Data/Informatics lead & member of NIHR prioritisation committee.
- James Boardman - Professor of Neonatal Medicine and immediate past president of the Neonatal Society.
- Elaine Boyle - Professor of Neonatal Medicine & Chair of the NIHR Neonatal Clinical Studies Group.
- William Carroll - Consultant Paediatrician and RCPCH officer for Research.
- Jon Dorling - Professor of Paediatrics, Neonatal Consultant and BAPM research lead.
- Kate Dinwiddy - Chief Executive of BAPM.
- Katie Evans - Project Co-ordinator and Honorary Clinical Research Fellow in Neonatal Medicine.
- Chris Gale - Academic Neonatologist and Neonatal Society Meeting Secretary.
- Katie Gallagher - Academic Neonatal Nurse and Neonatal Nurses Association representative.
- Pollyanna Hardy - Clinical Trials Statistician and Director of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit Clinical Trials Unit
- Emma Johnston - Parent representative and Parents and Family engagement Lead with the Thames Valley and Wessex ODN.
- Helen Mactier - Consultant Neonatologist, Honorary Clinical Associate Professor, and President of BAPM.
- Claire Marcroft - Neonatal Physiotherapist and Allied Health Professionals Representative
- James Webbe - Trainee representative and Neonatal Medicine GRID Trainee.
Prioritised questions - final list