Eczema is a common condition yet there are numerous uncertainties in its treatment. More research is needed on how to treat the condition effectively, but it is unusual for patients and clinicians to set the research agenda.
In order to involve both those who have eczema, and those who treat eczema, a priority setting partnership was formed to tackle this issue. The Partnership was overseen by the James Lind Alliance and included patients, clinicians and researchers. Its central task was to identify uncertainties about treatments for eczema and to prioritise the top selected issues for future research.
The exercise took place in 2011 in three phases:
There was some distinction between what patients considered most important and what health professionals considered most important, but some priorities were shared.
This resulted in a top 14 list of uncertainties grouped into 3 categories--shared priorities, top priorities voted by patients/carers, and top priorities of healthcare professionals.
The findings will be shared with funding and research agenda setting organisations to implement research.
Researchers will be encouraged to focus on these unanswered questions, set by patients and health professionals alike, in the years to come.
Studies are currently been developed by researchers from the Centre of Evidence Based Dermatology at The University of Nottingham in line with the results of the Eczema Priority Setting Partnership.
This project was managed by a Steering Group made up of clinicians, patients and researchers. It was chaired by an independent facilitator from the James Lind Alliance.
Eczema PSP findings have been presented orally and through posters at various conferences including the British Dermatology Nursing Group Annual Conference, the Royal College of General Practitioner’s Annual Conference, the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, the British Association of Dermatologist’s annual conference and the patient involvement in research conference INVOLVE.
The University of Nottingham Applied Health Research Building University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD
telephone: +44 (0) 115 84 68631 email: cebd@nottingham.ac.uk