A checklist for health research priority setting: nine common themes of good practice

[Guest guest]

A checklist for health research priority setting: nine common themes of good

practice

Roderik F Viergever1, Sylvie Olifson2, Abdul Ghaffar3, F Terry4*

Health Research Policy and Systems 2010, 8:36doi:10.1186/1478-4505-8-36 -15

December 2010

Available online at: http://bit.ly/dQYuf4

Health research priority setting processes assist researchers and policymakers

in effectively targeting research that has the greatest potential public health

benefit. Many different approaches to health research prioritization exist, but

there is no agreement on what might constitute best practice. Moreover, because

of the many different contexts for which priorities can be set, attempting to

produce one best practice is in fact not appropriate, as the optimal approach

varies per exercise.

 

Therefore, following a literature review and an analysis of health research

priority setting exercises that were organized or coordinated by the World

Health Organization since 2005, we propose a checklist for health research

priority setting that allows for informed choices on different approaches and

outlines nine common themes of good practice. It is intended to provide generic

assistance for planning health research prioritization processes.

 

The checklist explains what needs to be clarified in order to establish the

context for which priorities are set; it reviews available approaches to health

research priority setting; it offers discussions on stakeholder participation

and information gathering; it sets out options for use of criteria and different

methods for deciding upon priorities; and it emphasizes the importance of

well-planned implementation, evaluation and transparency…â€