What are the aims of the RA-UK Regional Anaesthesia Research Priority Setting Partnership?
The aim of the Regional Anaesthesia Research PSP is to identify the unanswered questions about Regional Anaesthesia from both patient and clinical perspectives and then prioritise those that they agree are the most important.
The PSP will therefore:
- work with patients and clinicians to identify unanswered questions regarding regional anaesthesia.
- to agree, by consensus, a prioritised list of those questions for research.
- to publicise the results of the PSP and its process.
- to take the results to research commissioning bodies to be considered for funding.
How will the Regional Anaesthesia Research PSP achieve these aims?
RA-UK will work with partner organisations to reach out to a wide range of healthcare professionals and patients. Their opinions on what questions research into regional anaesthesia should address will be sought via the means of an online survey.
Suggested research questions will be reviewed and similar questions grouped together to form indicative questions. The Literature will be reviewed, and unanswered questions will progress to priority setting.
A second online survey will ask respondents to rank questions in order of importance. As with the 1st survey RA-UK will work with partner organisations to ensure a wide range of views are included in this step.
The highest ranked questions will progress to a final priority setting round. A multi-disciplinary group of experts will reach consensus on the 10 most important research questions
The final research questions will be published and hopefully influence the direction of future regional anaesthesia research.
Who Are the Partner organisations working with RA-UK on the Regional Anaesthesia Research PSP?
Royal College of Surgeons (Edinburgh)
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
College of Operating Department Practitioners
British Anaesthetic and Recovery Nurses Association
Society of Bariatric Anaesthesia
British Elbow Surgery Society
Association for Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia and Critical Care
Association of Breast Surgery
British Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society
British Orthopaedic Oncology Society
Society of British Neurological Surgeons
Society of Cardiothoracic Surgeons
British Trauma Society
British Orthopaedic Trainees Association
British Association of Day surgery
The Obstetric Anaesthetists' Association
In addition to formal partner organisations many other organisations have agreed to share the online surveys, ensuring a wide range of healthcare professionals and patients will have the opportunity to contribute to the project.
How can I Help?
If you are a healthcare professional who cares for patients that have had regional anaesthetic techniques or have undergone a regional anaesthetic technique yourself, we’d like to hear your ideas! The online survey below will ask for your ideas on what should be researched and a little bit about you. It is open from the 1st of March until midnight on the 30th of April.
The full research protocol can be accessed here.
https://forms.office.com/r/Z3RNfQV99c
