Identifying research priorities and research needs among health and research professionals in psycho-oncology

Aim: To identify and prioritize the key research questions in psycho‐oncology in order to guide the development of large multicenter clinically relevant studies. Methods: All members of the Psycho‐Oncology Co‐operative Research Group (n = 295) were invited to participate in an online survey and 180 responded (response rate = 61%). Participants rated eight priority research areas identified from a previous focus group study on a five‐point scale, and ranked their top four priority areas. Within the four ranked research areas, participants selected the three most important specific research questions. Results: The highest rated research priority areas were distress identification (23.3%), survivorship (22.7%), and distress management (15.3%), followed by issues relating to health services (9.7%) and carers (8.0%). Interventions were commonly nominated among the most important research questions within each priority area. The single most important research question identified by 44% of the sample was to “Determine the most acceptable, reliable and valid screening tool to be administered routinely at diagnosis and at other key transition points to identify distress and psychosocial needs”. Conclusion: This is the first Australian study to explore research priorities in psycho‐oncology, and the first international study to explore these issues in depth. To ensure that the research effort is strategic, clinically relevant and cost‐effective, clear priorities need to be established. The results of this survey will enable limited resources to focus on key research questions of direct clinical benefit.     

1988 ONS survey of research priorities

The purpose of this study was to partially replicate the 1984 ONS Research Priorities Survey. The educational standards of ONS were used as a conceptual framework. Surveys were mailed to 700 ONS members involved in research, with a response rate of 30% (n = 213). Respondents identified Prevention and Early Detection, Symptom Management, Pain Control and Management, Patient or Health Education, and Coping and Stress Management as their top five research priorities. The results were submitted to the National Center for Nursing Research as ONS's 1988 research priorities.     

Nursing research priorities related to HIV/AIDS

To determine the nursing research priorities related to HIV/AIDS, a two-round Delphi technique survey was conducted. Registered nurses in clinical, administrative, academic, and research nursing positions identified a total of 208 topics. The highest-ranked items were patient-centered and lower-ranked items were provider-centered. Subjects in clinical practice identified the nutritional aspects of AIDS care and hospice care as being of higher priority than did subjects in administrative, academic, and research positions. Complementary therapies and healthcare providers' fears were ranked as higher priorities by the administrative, academic, and research nurses than by the clinical practice subjects.     

International Web-based consultation on priorities for translational breast cancer research

Background

Large numbers of translational breast cancer research topics have been completed or are underway, but they differ widely in their immediate and/or future importance to clinical management. We therefore conducted an international Web-based consultation of breast cancer professionals to identify the topics most widely considered to be of highest priority.

Methods

Potential participants were contacted via two large e-mail databases and asked to register, at a Web site, the issues that they felt to be of highest priority. Four hundred nine questions were reduced by a steering committee to 70 unique issues, and registrants were asked to select the 6 questions they considered to be the most important.

Results

Votes were recorded from 420 voters (2,520 votes) from 48 countries, with 48% of voters coming from North America. Half of the voters identified themselves as clinicians, with the remainder being academics, research scientists, or pathologists. The highest priority was to identify molecular signatures to select patients who could be spared chemotherapy, which gained about 50% more votes than the second topic and was consistently voted top by voters in North America, Europe, and the rest of the world. Research scientists voted the determination of the role of stem cells in breast cancer development, progression, and treatment sensitivity as the most important issue, but this was considered the sixth priority for clinicians and fourth overall.

Conclusion

This exercise may bring a greater focus of research resources onto issues voted as top priorities.