Development of a user-friendly tool for Value of Information analysis to assist research prioritisation decisions

Abstract: Research prioritisation is an essential component of managing health systems. It is the art of developing a consensus on a number of priority areas that need to be underpinned by future investment in research. Once resources are invested in one research topic they are no longer available for other investments. Commissioning new research implies that the uncertainty about outcomes is unacceptable and is considered important enough to justify the investment in research. While there are a number of ways of setting priorities for health research, methods of Value of Information (VOI) provides an analytic framework to quantify the expected benefits of research that would resolve decision uncertainty. VOI has traditionally been applied within the context of probabilistic decision-analytic models used to inform health care decisions. However, conducting decision-analytic modelling is often not practical or feasible within the time and resource constraints of funding bodies to identify research priorities. Research at York have developed ‘rapid’ VOI to simplify the methods to allow for rapid estimation of the value of further research without the need for constructing complex and expensive decision models. Rapid VOI takes the primary outcome of effectiveness as its starting point and uses it to understand the health consequences of uncertainty. In situations where there are a number of other important aspects of outcome that are not captured in the primary outcome (e.g., adverse events, quality of life impact or resource implications), a minimum clinical difference (MCD) in effectiveness in the primary outcome may be specified in order to capture these additional considerations. For example, a larger MCD in effectiveness in the primary outcome may need to be detected in a new research study before there is confidence that health outcomes will be improved.  

We have developed a tool, RANE (Rapid Assessment of the Need for Evidence) to prospectively assess the value of research proposals in a timely manner. This has been piloted on research proposals for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre (NETSCC) to assess the application of the tool in practice, in terms of its acceptability, fit for purpose and practicality by end users.