Contraception Priority Setting Partnership update: pushing the contraception research agenda forward

The Contraception Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) project entered into its final stages in 2017, and the top 10 research priorities in contraception were announced at FSRH’s Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) in Cardiff last year. In 2018, FSRH will continue to influence research funders to support research into the top 10 priorities through its new Clinical Studies Group (CSG).

2017 saw the final stages of the Contraception PSP, a participatory research project in collaboration with the James Lind Alliance (JLA) to help understand healthcare professionals’ and users’ priorities in contraception research.

Since the soft-launch, the Contraception PSP Steering Group has been working with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and other research funders to develop the top 10 priorities into research questions and monitor the impact of the priority setting process.

The Contraception PSP was originally a project conducted in the framework of the FSRH Sexual and Reproductive Health Clinical Studies Group (SRH CSG), whose aim is to develop clinical and behavioural science research studies to further our understanding of sexual behaviour and ways in which we can improve the sexual and reproductive health of women and men.

In 2018, the SRH CSG reconvened with a renewed membership and is in the process of defining its activities for the coming years. The Contraception PSP is a priority for the new SRH CSG, who will be working hard to push this research agenda forward.

The official project report will be launched via FSRH’s social media channels as part of activities to mark FSRH’s 25th anniversary this year. Please follow @FSRH_UK and #ContraceptionTop10 as well as our page on Facebook to stay on top of this exciting project.

What happens with the other research concerns which did not make it into the final top 10?

The information and questions received from the initial surveys that were deemed out of scope for the project have not gone to waste. The list of 57 verified unanswered research questions generated by the initial surveys have been reviewed by the Steering Group’s data management team and compiled into a spreadsheet which includes a summary of key points of the uncertainty and why it is important for research funders to begin working on them. The priorities and the spreadsheet are available on the JLA website. Each priority has an individual page so as to enable the NICE Evidence database to pick them up do people using that database to search for uncertainties will find them.