Basic & Clinical Cancer Research (Aug 2024)

Priority setting for biomedical research including Covid-19 in the northeastern part of Iran

  • Rahim Akrami,
  • Abbas Badakhshan,
  • Masoumeh Hashemian,
  • Masoud Hiteh,
  • Bahareh Amin,
  • Mohammad Shafi Mojadadi,
  • Mansoureh Feizabadi,
  • Maasoumeh Aran,
  • Najmeh Mahmoodabadi,
  • Maryam Goudarzian,
  • Salehabadi Raha,
  • Alireza Darvishi,
  • Homeyra Vahdati,
  • Taibeh Nowrouzinejad,
  • Akbar Pejhan,
  • Mohsen Koushan,
  • Nasrin Fazel,
  • Ahmad Allahabadi,
  • Abolfazl Rahmani Sani,
  • Alireza Ghorbani,
  • Mohammad Hassan Rakhshani,
  • Moosaalreza Tadayonfar,
  • Forough Mortazavi,
  • Akram Kooshki,
  • Roya Akbarzadeh,
  • Mojtaba hadavifar,
  • Ali Delbari,
  • Hafez Heydari Zarnagh,
  • Fatemeh Ghaffarirad,
  • Majid Fallahi,
  • Reza Frozen,
  • Behnaz Souizi,
  • Jila Agah,
  • Ramezan Ali Khamirchi,
  • Mohammad Shourideh Yazdi,
  • Hessam Ghassemof,
  • Houman Kamranian,
  • Mehdi Molavi,
  • Hossein Assarzadeh,
  • Hassan Salehipour,
  • Nasrin Hashemian Nejad,
  • Mohammadreza Sadr,
  • Seyed Mehdi Mirhamidi,
  • Abolfazl Shakiba,
  • Seyed Mehdi Razavi,
  • Mahdi Motakeffar,
  • Fatemeh Nodeh,
  • Mohammad Reza Shegarf Nakhaie,
  • Omid Gholami,
  • Freshteh Ghorat,
  • Mohammad Mohammad-Zadeh,
  • Alireza Moslem,
  • Kazem Zendehdel

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 3

Abstract

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Background: Appropriate priority setting in public health and biomedical research is crucial to make decisions for resource allocation and prioritizing the projects. We studied the research gaps and identified priorities for biomedical research in Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences (SabUMS), located in Sabzevar city in the northeastern part of Iran. Materials & Methods: we used both qualitative and quantitative approaches to determine the public health problems and health research priorities.The processes for priority setting included preparation, problem finding, idea generation, data cleaning and statement development, ranking, and dissemination. We used qualitative research and quantitative surveys for problem findings. We organized two workshops with researchers and public health authorities of Sabzevar city for idea generation, defining criteria for priority setting, and ranking of the research ideas. We used national and international recommendations to prepare a list of research priorities in the region for COVID-19. Results: The criteria for priority setting were concerns of the community, magnitude, and urgency of the problem. In addition, feasibility, the possibility of regional and international research collaboration, and the availability of the infrastructure and capacity to conduct research were used for ranking. The final list of priority areas for research in SabUMS included non-communicable diseases, mental health, drug abuse, accidents, and nutrition respectively. COVID-19 was considered a separate area for research. Conclusion: Experience from this study and follow-up reports would provide best practices in research development in low-resource areas and pave the way for evidence-based public health practice.

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