Search

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This study investigated and analyzed Iranian clinical trials registered in the ICTRP portal by the end of 2015. The goal was to determine which diseases are currently being studied and whether these are diseases that carry the greatest burden of disease according to regional and WHO statistics. Materials and Methods Information on clinical trials carried out in Iran was downloaded from the portal of the International Clinical Trials Registry website. By the end of 2015, 10,341 studies were registered from Iran. After removing duplicate and observational studies, 10,211 studies remained for analysis. The 2016 edition of the International Classification of Diseases was used to classify the diseases. Results The frequency of studies was found to be mental and behavioral disorders (10.44%), diseases of the genitourinary system (10.2%), and endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases (10.01%). Gastrointestinal and dermatologic diseases made up more than 12% of studies, but bear only 0.84% of the burden of disease in Iran. Conclusion The results showed that, despite an increase in registration of clinical trials in Iran, most studies registered were conducted on diseases, which form only a small percentage of the total disease burden of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]