Table 2 Suggestions for improving the impact of James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnerships

For the JLA

➣ Extend JLA guidance to cover impact-oriented activity beyond producing a Top 10 list

➣Ensure that JLA Advisors are trained and resourced to support planning such activity

For JLA PSPs

At the planning stage:

➣ Consider who will own the Top 10 list once it has been produced, and how the list might be taken forward

➣ Plan early for wide dissemination and associated networking and lobbying activity

➣ Ensure that resources are allocated for such ‘post Top 10’ activities

During and after the Top 10 list has been produced:

➣ Make strategic use of patients, carers, clinicians and researchers in promoting the Top 10 list

➣ Work with funders after dissemination of the Top 10 list, recognising that (depending on culture, remit and priorities) they may not believe it is their responsibility to address the priorities identified

➣ Work with clinicians, patients and carers to develop specific research questions and projects from the Top 10 list

➣ Do foundational work to build researchers’ capacity and willingness to respond (e.g. interdisciplinary workshops to promote collective thinking)

For research funders, and researchers

➣ Recognise that patient, carer and clinician input has an important place in research priority setting, and promote this culture in your organisation

➣ Improve your understanding of the JLA process and its goals, including how a Top 10 list is produced and what additional data may be available from a JLA PSP

➣ Recognise that whilst some JLA PSP priority topics may not be new, the way that patients, carers and clinicians frame their questions may bring a different perspective, requiring a novel methodological response and closer dialogue between researchers and patients, carers and clinicians

➣ Recognise that not all research topics and questions should be framed as PICO (population-intervention-comparison-outcome) and addressed in clinical trials

➣ Provide training for reviewers of funding applications (including patient and public reviewers) about the JLA PSP process, and support a systematic approach (e.g. with criteria) for reviewers to judge whether a research proposal genuinely reflects a prioritised question

For academic journals

➣ Designate and promote a specific publication genre (‘Research Priority Setting’) for PSPs (and others) to publish their findings

➣ Encourage peer reviewers of such publications to be aware of the steps set out in the JLA guidebook

➣ Tag such publications with standard key words such as ‘research priority setting’ to make them easily retrievable