Involving clinical experts in prioritising topics for health technology assessment: a randomised controlled trial

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to explore whether reducing the material supplied to external experts during peer review and decreasing the burden of response would maintain review quality into prioritising research questions for a major research funder. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: Clinical experts who agreed to review documents outlining research for potential commissioning were screened for eligibility and randomised in a factorial design to two types of review materials (long document versus short document) and response modes (structured review form versus free text email response). Previous and current members of the funder’s programme groups were excluded. Response quality was assessed by use of a four-point scoring tool and analysed by intention to treat. RESULTS: 554 consecutive experts were screened for eligibility and 460 were randomised (232 and 228 to long document or short document, respectively; 230 each to structured response or free text). 356 participants provided reviews, 90 did not respond and 14 were excluded after randomisation as not eligible. The pooled mean quality score was 2.4 (SD=0.95). The short document scored 0.037 (Cohen’s d=0.039) extra quality points over the long document arm, and the structured response scored 0.335 (Cohen’s d=0.353) over free text. The allocation did not appear to have any effect on the experts' willingness to engage with the task. CONCLUSIONS: Neither providing a short or a long document outlining suggested research was shown to be superior. However, providing a structured form to guide the expert response provided more useful information than allowing free text. The funder should continue to use a structured form to gather responses. It would be acceptable to provide shorter documents to reviewers, if there were reasons to do so. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ANZCTR12614000167662.