Eder Michelle, Feightner Alisha, Webber Elizabeth, Guirguis-Blake Janelle, Whitlock Evelyn P.
Oregon Evidence-based Practice Center, Center for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente Northwest
The 2009 AHRQ Series Paper 3 described the principles underlying the selection of topics for systematic reviews within the Effective Health Care (EHC) Program. This paper describes methods for topic nomination development to support the selection of topics for systematic reviews within the EHC Program.
The topic nomination development processes described in this paper are derived from 4 years of experience developing, refining, and managing the topic nomination development and selection processes for the EHC Program, along with feedback from Evidence-based Practice Centers and AHRQ staff more recently involved with these activities.
The topic nomination development process includes background searching, definition of the topic scope, a search for systematic reviews, documentation of existing guidance on the topic, a feasibility scan for primary research, and completion of a three part topic brief that includes a Cover Sheet, Selection Criteria document, and Existing Guidance document. Selection of topics for systematic review occurs at monthly meetings of a topic triage group representing stakeholder and scientific perspectives, as well as the programmatic authority vested in AHRQ, and is informed by the information presented in the topic briefs. Results of the topic selection process are described in a Nomination Summary Document to communicate the disposition of nominations to the public.
Potential avenues for expansion of topic nomination development and selection activities within the EHC Program include prioritization among topics selected for a review when resources are constrained and incorporating evaluations of the need to update reviews conducted by the EHC Program into the current topic selection process.
Given the extent of health care needs and constraints on the resources available to address these needs, methods to identify the most important topics for synthesized research are essential. The consistent, transparent process for evaluating topics described in this paper is designed to identify the topics most appropriate for a review by the EHC Program.
2009年美国医疗保健研究与质量局（AHRQ）系列论文3阐述了有效医疗保健（EHC）项目中系统性综述主题选择的基本原则。本文描述了主题提名开发的方法，以支持EHC项目中系统性综述主题的选择。
本文所述的主题提名开发流程源自4年的经验，包括为EHC项目开发、完善和管理主题提名开发及选择流程，以及循证实践中心和近期参与这些活动的AHRQ工作人员的反馈。
主题提名开发流程包括背景搜索、主题范围定义、系统性综述搜索、主题现有指南记录、初步研究的可行性扫描，以及完成一份包含封面页、选择标准文件和现有指南文件的三部分主题简报。系统性综述主题的选择在代表利益相关者和科学观点的主题分诊小组的月度会议上进行，同时考虑AHRQ的项目授权，并参考主题简报中呈现的信息。主题选择过程的结果在提名总结文件中进行描述，以向公众传达提名的处理情况。
EHC项目中主题提名开发和选择活动的潜在扩展途径包括在资源受限的情况下对选定进行综述的主题进行优先级排序，以及将对更新EHC项目所进行综述的必要性评估纳入当前主题选择过程。
鉴于医疗保健需求的范围以及满足这些需求可用资源的限制，确定综合研究最重要主题的方法至关重要。本文所述的评估主题的一致、透明流程旨在确定最适合EHC项目进行综述的主题。
