The SPARK Tool to prioritise questions for systematic reviews in health policy and systems research: development and initial validation

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Abstract

Background

Groups or institutions funding or conducting systematic reviews in health policy and systems research (HPSR) should prioritise topics according to the needs of policymakers and stakeholders. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a tool to prioritise questions for systematic reviews in HPSR.

Methods

We developed the tool following a four-step approach consisting of (1) the definition of the purpose and scope of tool, (2) item generation and reduction, (3) testing for content and face validity, (4) and pilot testing of the tool. The research team involved international experts in HPSR, systematic review methodology and tool development, led by the Center for Systematic Reviews on Health Policy and Systems Research (SPARK). We followed an inclusive approach in determining the final selection of items to allow customisation to the user’s needs.

Results

The purpose of the SPARK tool was to prioritise questions in HPSR in order to address them in systematic reviews. In the item generation and reduction phase, an extensive literature search yielded 40 relevant articles, which were reviewed by the research team to create a preliminary list of 19 candidate items for inclusion in the tool. As part of testing for content and face validity, input from international experts led to the refining, changing, merging and addition of new items, and to organisation of the tool into two modules. Following pilot testing, we finalised the tool, with 22 items organised in two modules – the first module including 13 items to be rated by policymakers and stakeholders, and the second including 9 items to be rated by systematic review teams. Users can customise the tool to their needs, by omitting items that may not be applicable to their settings. We also developed a user manual that provides guidance on how to use the SPARK tool, along with signaling questions.

Conclusion

We have developed and conducted initial validation of the SPARK tool to prioritise questions for systematic reviews in HPSR, along with a user manual. By aligning systematic review production to policy priorities, the tool will help support evidence-informed policymaking and reduce research waste. We invite others to contribute with additional real-life implementation of the tool.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12961-017-0242-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Most cited references 27

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Overcoming health-systems constraints to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

Phyllida Travis, Sara Bennett, Andy Haines … (2004)

Effective interventions exist for many priority health problems in low income countries; prices are falling, and funds are increasing. However, progress towards agreed health goals remains slow. There is increasing consensus that stronger health systems are key to achieving improved health outcomes. There is much less agreement on quite how to strengthen them. Part of the challenge is to get existing and emerging knowledge about more (and less) effective strategies into practice. The evidence base also remains remarkably weak, partly because health-systems research has an image problem. The forthcoming Ministerial Summit on Health Research seeks to help define a learning agenda for health systems, so that by 2015, substantial progress will have been made to reducing the system constraints to achieving the MDGs.

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

Roderik F. Viergever, Sylvie Olifson, Abdul Ghaffar … (2010)

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.

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Is Open Access

Building the Field of Health Policy and Systems Research: Social Science Matters

Lucy Gilson, Kara Hanson, Kabir Sheikh … (2011)

In the second in a series of articles addressing the current challenges and opportunities for the development of Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR), Lucy Gilson and colleagues argue the importance of insights from the social sciences.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Elie A. Akl: ea32@aub.edu.lb

Racha Fadlallah: rsf07@mail.aub.edu

Lilian Ghandour: lg01@aub.edu.lb

Ola Kdouh: olakdouh@gmail.com

Etienne Langlois: langloise@who.int

John N. Lavis: lavisj@mcmaster.ca

Holger Schünemann: holger.schunemann@mcmaster.ca

Fadi El-Jardali: fe08@aub.edu.lb

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Health Res Policy Syst

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Health Res Policy Syst

Title: Health Research Policy and Systems

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1478-4505

Publication date (Electronic): 4 September 2017

Publication date PMC-release: 4 September 2017

Publication date Collection: 2017

Volume: 15

Electronic Location Identifier: 77

Affiliations

[1 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 9801, GRID grid.22903.3a, Department of Internal Medicine, , American University of Beirut, ; Beirut, Lebanon

[2 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 9801, GRID grid.22903.3a, Center for Systematic Reviews of Health Policy and Systems Research (SPARK), , American University of Beirut, ; Beirut, Lebanon

[3 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 8227, GRID grid.25073.33, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, , McMaster University, ; Hamilton, ON Canada

[4 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 9801, GRID grid.22903.3a, Department of Health Management and Policy, Faculty of Health Sciences, , American University of Beirut, ; Beirut, Lebanon

[5 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 9801, GRID grid.22903.3a, Knowledge to Policy (K2P) Center, , American University of Beirut, ; Beirut, Lebanon

[6 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 9801, GRID grid.22903.3a, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Health Sciences, , American University of Beirut, ; Beirut, Lebanon

[7 ]Primary Healthcare Department at the Ministry of Public Health, Beirut, Lebanon

[8 ]ISNI 0000000121633745, GRID grid.3575.4, Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, , World Health Organization, ; Avenue Appia 20, 1211 Geneva, Switzerland

[9 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 8227, GRID grid.25073.33, McMaster Health Forum, , McMaster University, ; Hamilton, ON Canada

[10 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 8227, GRID grid.25073.33, Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, , McMaster University, ; Hamilton, ON Canada

[11 ]ISNI 000000041936754X, GRID grid.38142.3c, Department of Global Health and Population, , Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, ; Boston, MA United States of America

[12 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1936 8227, GRID grid.25073.33, McMaster GRADE Centre and Department of Medicine, , McMaster University, ; Hamilton, ON Canada

Article

Publisher ID: 242

DOI: 10.1186/s12961-017-0242-4

PMC ID: 5583759

PubMed ID: 28870215

SO-VID: 5ecaf970-9916-47a5-80ba-d383a483017c

License:

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

History

Date received : 25 December 2016

Date accepted : 16 August 2017

Funding

Funded by: Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, WHO, Geneva

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Health & Social care

Keywords: systematic review,health policy and systems research,priority setting,evidence-informed policymaking,health system strengthening,development of a tool

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Health & Social care

Keywords: systematic review, health policy and systems research, priority setting, evidence-informed policymaking, health system strengthening, development of a tool

The SPARK Tool to prioritise questions for systematic reviews in health policy and systems research: development and initial validation

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Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Electronic supplementary material

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Most cited references 27

Overcoming health-systems constraints to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

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

Building the Field of Health Policy and Systems Research: Social Science Matters

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