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Rapid Research Needs Appraisals

A 'living' Rapid Research Needs Appraisal (RRNA) platform for priority diseases

We are establishing a ‘living’ platform to appraise existing evidence on WHO priority diseases and other selected diseases, including pandemic influenza, mpox and plague, aligned with the Grant Tracker. The method utilises a novel 24-hour relay model with expert systematic reviewers based in different time zones and a software platform.

RRNA Diagram
Image created by Cochrane South Africa & PSI Policy & Practice Research Group, University of Oxford. Open access under the Creative Commons BY license.

The need and ability to conduct clinical research during infectious disease outbreaks to inform clinical and public health management to improve individual and outbreak outcomes is a core pillar of outbreak response.  The unpredictable nature of outbreaks makes outbreak research challenging. Since time is of the essence, researchers, policy makers, and funders need to rapidly identify key gaps in the existing evidence-base at the earliest stages of an outbreak, so that they can prioritize and implement research to address those gaps to ensure that research undertaken has maximal value. 

Traditional approaches to evidence assimilation, such as systematic reviews, generally take up to 12 months to complete. During outbreaks, time is of the essence however even rapid reviews methods might require one to six months or long to complete.  

To address this, we have developed a new rapid, robust methodology to systematically identify existing evidence across pre-defined domains linked to the funding tracker, to identify gaps in the evidence-base to inform research prioritization and coordination, and build capability for rapid updates as new evidence, need and priorities evolve during outbreaks. The method builds on prior work developed in collaboration with Cochrane Response and Evidence Aid UK in 2017. We are refining this methodology by incorporating lessons learnt from the COVID-19 pandemic, and incorporating new automated tools. 

Our ‘living’ Research Needs Appraisal platform for priority infectious diseases utilises a novel 24-hour relay model with expert systematic reviewers based in different time zones globally to optimise resources. The objective is to robustly and transparently identify gaps in the published evidence base which will align with the Grant Tracker to provide a comprehensive overview of evidence gaps, to inform prioritisation and coordination of research in preparedness time and during outbreaks. This can help to optimise research investments to generate data to protect populations at risk and improve outbreak outcomes. 

The protocol is available as open-access on the Open Science Framework: OSF | Rapid Research Needs Appraisals

RRNA Diagram 2
Image created by Susan Khader Ibrahim, Emilia Antonio, PSI Policy & Practice Research Group, University of Oxford. Open access under the Creative Commons BY license.

Collaborators

  • Eli Harriss, Bodleian Health Care Libraries, University of Oxford
  • Vincent Cheng, University of Bristol
  • Katrin Probyn, Cochrane Response
  • Brian Buckley, Cochrane Response
  • Gemma Villanueva, Cochrane Response
  • Nicholas Henschke, Cochrane Response
  • Duduzile Ndwandwe, Cochrane South Africa
  • Yonela Ntamo, Cochrane South Africa
  • Marakiya Moetlediwa, Cochrane South Africa