HEDS is part of the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield. We undertake research, teaching, training and consultancy on all aspects of health related decision science, with a particular emphasis on health economics, HTA and evidence synthesis.

Thursday 18 July 2019

Dr Marrissa Martyn-St James wins Best Oral Presentation Award at HTAi 2019

Congratulations to our own Dr Marrissa Martyn-St James who won the Best Oral Presentation Award at HTAi 2019 with her talk on Developing a Decision Tool for Selecting Approaches for Rapid Reviews. The details of the talk are below and you can contact Marrissa at m.martyn-stjames@sheffield.ac.uk



Authors: Abdullah Pandor, Eva Kaltenthaler, Marrissa Martyn-St James (presenter), Ruth Wong, Katy Cooper, Munya Dimairo, Alicia O’Cathain, Fiona Campbell, Andrew Booth

Image of HTAi 2019 Best Oral Presentation award
HTAi 2019 Best Oral Presentation
A modified online Delphi survey was conducted to reach consensus on items in the STARR (SelecTing Approaches for Rapid Reviews) decision tool for adapting review processes. Following pilot testing of the tool, a panel of 30 experts was recruited. Delphi consensus of ≥70% agreement of 20 items in the final STARR decision tool was reached at Round 2.


Introduction:
Image of Dr Marrissa Martyn-St-James
Dr Marrissa Martyn-St-James
Rapid reviews are of increasing importance within evidence synthesis and health technology assessment (HTA) due to the need for timely evidence to underpin the assessment of new technologies. Financial constraints have also contributed to the increase in rapid reviews. There are many rapid review methods available. However, there is little definitive guidance as to which methods are most appropriate. We developed the STARR (SelecTing Approaches for Rapid Reviews), decision tool for adapting review processes through a modified Delphi approach. The STARR tool was initially developed around our work in rapid reviews.

Method:
A modified online Delphi survey was conducted in May 2018. The STARR tool covers four themes: interaction with commissioners/policy-makers, scoping and searching the evidence base, data extraction and synthesis methods, and reporting of rapid review methods. The Delphi included 8 questions on theme headers and descriptors plus 11 questions on items in the tool. Following independent pilot testing, a panel of 30 experts who had published rapid reviews or been involved in development of their methods were invited to complete an online questionnaire through an iterative process including suggestions for changes. Importance of each item was rated on a scale of 1 (not important) to 9 (critically important). Consensus was ≥70% agreement across each item rated ≥7. All responses were collected in Delphi Manager® software.

Results:
Consensus was reached at Round 1 (30 respondents). However, following Round 1, one additional item on quality assessment that was suggested was added, and suggestions to improve clarity and understanding of the decision tool were made. Final consensus of 20 STARR items was reached after Round 2 (24 respondents).

Conclusions:
Delphi consensus of the final STARR decision tool was reached after two rounds. Roll-out of the STARR decision tool is now planned to assist in helping plan rapid reviews.