​Overview of the ISSHOOs project

A global stakeholder and advisory group, including patient and public research partners, and representatives of key pain and equity organisations will be involved throughout the planning, conduct and reporting of all stages of this project

Why?

​Routinely collecting 'equity relevant' data
has the potential to:

• Inform readers about the generalisability of study findings
• Enable analysis of differential effects of interventions across strata of society
• Allow exploration of treatment effect modifiers
• Guide population targeting and recruitment strategies for clinical studies
• Prompt researchers to consider equity issues in the planning, conduct & interpretation of research

What?

​The ISSHOOs project will
​achieve:

• ​Consensus on what 'equity-relevant' data to collect
• Guidance on how to collect it
• Clarity on why it is important, and
• Explanation of how this data may be used

How?

​This project will involve
5 consecutive stages:

Stage 1:  A Scoping Review to develop an initial list of equity-relevant items.
These items (question and response sets) will be organised according to the PROGRESS-Plus equity framework.
 
Stage 2:  International Delphi study
A group of international experts will participate in a 3-stage Delphi study designed to:

• Assess the level of agreement on the initial list of items for each of the PROGRESS-Plus characteristics
• Elicit additional items (if required) and refine the initial list
• Prioritise which items to include in a minimum dataset

 
Stage 3:  Consensus meeting
The list of agreed items produced by the Delphi study will inform an online consensus meeting to consolidate and prioritise key items to be included in the recommendations.
 
Stage 4:  Focus group(s)
We will seek diverse representation from the members of the general public to participate in a focus group, who will be asked to provide feedback and suggestions related to the draft minimum dataset. We will lead discussions to explore aspects such as perceived meaning, acceptability, appropriateness and understandability.
 
Stage 5:  Writing and dissemination

• Production of recommendations including specification of a recommended minimum dataset
• Explanation and elaboration of the rationale for collecting this data
• Suggestions for how researches can use, interpret and report the data collected.
• The outputs will be disseminated via journals, conferences, and inter-disciplinary professional meetings