Imperial College London

DrRaheelahAhmad

Faculty of MedicineDepartment of Infectious Disease

Honorary Senior Lecturer
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 3313 3244raheelah.ahmad00

 
 
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Location

 

Hammersmith HospitalHammersmith Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Rawson:2017:10.1111/hex.12604,
author = {Rawson, T and Castro, Sanchez E and Charani, E and Husson, F and Moore, L and Holmes, A and Ahmad, R},
doi = {10.1111/hex.12604},
journal = {Health Expectations},
pages = {222--229},
title = {Involving citizens in priority setting for public health research: implementation in infection research},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hex.12604},
volume = {21},
year = {2017}
}

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB - BackgroundPublic sources fund the majority of UK infection research, but citizens currently have no formal role in resource allocation. To explore the feasibility and willingness of citizens to engage in strategic decision making, we developed and tested a practical tool to capture public priorities for research.MethodA scenario including six infection themes for funding was developed to assess citizen priorities for research funding. This was tested over two days at a university public festival. Votes were cast anonymously along with rationale for selection. The scenario was then implemented during a three-hour focus group exploring views on engagement in strategic decisions and in-depth evaluation of the tool.Results188/491(38%) prioritized funding research into drug-resistant infections followed by emerging infections(18%). Results were similar between both days. Focus groups contained a total of 20 citizens with an equal gender split, range of ethnicities and ages ranging from 18 to >70 years. The tool was perceived as clear with participants able to make informed comparisons. Rationale for funding choices provided by voters and focus group participants are grouped into three major themes: (i) Information processing; (ii) Knowledge of the problem; (iii) Responsibility; and a unique theme within the focus groups (iv) The potential role of citizens in decision making. Divergent perceptions of relevance and confidence of “non-experts” as decision makers were expressed.ConclusionVoting scenarios can be used to collect, en-masse, citizens' choices and rationale for research priorities. Ensuring adequate levels of citizen information and confidence is important to allow deployment in other formats.
AU - Rawson,T
AU - Castro,Sanchez E
AU - Charani,E
AU - Husson,F
AU - Moore,L
AU - Holmes,A
AU - Ahmad,R
DO - 10.1111/hex.12604
EP - 229
PY - 2017///
SN - 1369-7625
SP - 222
TI - Involving citizens in priority setting for public health research: implementation in infection research
T2 - Health Expectations
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hex.12604
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/49474
VL - 21
ER -