Research Priorities for U.K. Pediatric Critical Care in 2019: Healthcare Professionals' and Parents' Perspectives

Objectives: The Paediatric Intensive Care Society Study Group conducted a research prioritization exercise with the aim to identify and agree research priorities in Pediatric Critical Care in the United Kingdom both from a healthcare professional and parent/caregiver perspective.

Design: A modified three-round e-Delphi survey, followed by a survey of parents of the top 20 healthcare professional priorities.

Setting: U.K. PICUs.

Patients: U.K. PICU healthcare professionals who are members of the professional society and parents and family members of children, with experience of a U.K. PICU admission.

Interventions: None.

Measurements and main results: Forty-nine healthcare professional submitted topics in round 1, 98 participated in round 2, and 102 in round 3. These topics were categorized into eight broad domain areas, and within these, there were 73 specific topics in round 2. At round 3, 18 topics had a mean score less than 5.5 and were removed, leaving 55 topics for ranking in round 3. Ninety-five parents and family members completed the surveys from at least 17 U.K. PICUs. Both parents and healthcare professional prioritized research topics associated with the PICU workforce. Healthcare professional research priorities reflected issues that impacted on day-to-day management and practice. Parents' prioritized research addressing acute situations such as infection identification of and sepsis management or research addressing long-term outcomes for children and parents after critical illness. Parents prioritized research into longer term outcomes more than healthcare professional. Parental responses showed clear support for the concept of research in PICU, but few novel research questions were proposed.

Conclusions: This is the first research prioritization exercise within U.K. PICU setting to include parents' and families' perspectives and compare these with healthcare professional. Results will guide both funders and future researchers.