Developing a patient-driven chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) research agenda in the U.S

Background To document a generalizable process for developing a patient-prioritized chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) research agenda and to provide an overview of domains that were developed in response to people living with COPD and caregivers’ suggestions for research. Methods Adults with COPD and caregivers who are members of the COPD Patient-Powered Research Network (PPRN) provided suggestions for COPD-related research through a self-administered, online survey. These responses were analyzed with a content analysis approach: domains for categorizing all survey responses were created, then all responses were categorized independently by a group of researchers, then these categorizations were adjudicated, and finally a density map was created that represented the number of responses in each of the domains. Results At the time of analysis, 6157 adults had fully completed the baseline survey. Survey responses were categorized across seven domains as follows: 22.5% of all responses fell into the domain family/social/community research, 20.8% of all responses fell into the domain well-being, 15% of all responses fell into the domain curative research, 14.6% of all responses fell into the domain biomedical therapies, 10.5% of all responses fell into the domain policy concerns, 6% of all responses fell into the domain holistic therapies and 10.7% of all responses fell into the domain ambiguous comments that could not be translated into concrete research topics. Conclusion Using qualitative open-ended survey responses from the COPD PPRN registrants, we were able to identify six key domains of research about COPD that are considered most important by patients. These domains differ in content from prior scientist-led efforts to develop priorities for COPD research, demonstrating the ongoing importance of involving patients and their caregivers in determining research priorities. The results suggest the field can more closely align research efforts to patient priorities by considering the identified domains.
Plain English summary The COPD Patient-Powered Research Network (PPRN) asked adults with COPD and their caregivers to suggest areas for future research on COPD. Researchers analyzed 7336 survey responses and created six research areas to reflect their suggestions: (1) family/social/community research, (2) well-being, (3) research on a cure for COPD, (4) new drugs and treatments, (5) policy concerns, and (6) natural therapies. Several research topics patients and their caregivers identified as important have received little attention from researchers in the past and could be valuable topics for researchers to explore.