Dr Mona Nasser

My current research:

Meta-researchon how research funders contribute to reducing research waste and methods to prioritise research and set a research agenda

Meta-research is an evolving scientific discipline that aims to evaluate and improve research practices. I lead the work around funding agencies as part of the wider Reduce Research Waste initiative (REWARD – www.researchwaste.net). The REWARD initiative is an international collaboration with academics from around the world e.g. Stanford University (USA), Toronto University (Canada), Bond University (Australia), University of Edinburgh (Scotland). For the funding project, I work with ZonMW (a key health care research funder in Netherlands),National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) (a key health care research funder in UK), French ministry of Health, James Lind Alliance (UK), Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland), Bond University (Australia), Norwegian Institute of Public Health (Norway), Bergen University College (Norway) and University of Southern Denmark (Denmark). I have published the results of this project in Lancet. The project already had clear outputs and impact on the work of other organisations and will be part of a new impact story for REF 2020. We are currently planning a more in-depth studies how clinical epidemiological methods inform funding process. The key publications included:

·        Nasser M, Clarke M, Chalmers I, Brurberg KG, Nykvist H, Lund H &Glasziou P 2017 'What are funders doing to minimise waste in research?' TheLancet 389, (10073) 1006-1007.

·        Moher D, Glasziou P, Chalmers I, Nasser M, Bossuyt PMM, Korevaar DA,Graham ID, Ravaud P & Boutron I 2016 'Increasing value and reducing wastein biomedical research: who's listening?' LANCET 387, (10027) 1573-1586.

·        Nasser M 2017 'How Do Selected National Funding Agencies Communicate the Concept of Cognitive Innovation on Their Public Website?' AVANT. Trends inInterdisciplinary Studies.

The Cochrane Priority Setting Methods group is an international collaboration led by me between Plymouth University, John Hopkins University (USA), Cambridge University (UK), UCL (UK), Ottawa University (Canada), Bihar Monitoring and Evaluation Project (India), Modena University (Italy), Melbourne University(Australia). I conduct methodological and implementation research as part of an international collaboration of researchers and stakeholders with an interest in research priority setting methodology (Cochrane priority setting methods group– http://priority.cochrane.org). This also includes an interdisciplinary project as part of the larger CogNovo project (www.cognovo.eu) with colleagues from the arts, humanities and cognitive sciences. The project looked at how the interactive design approach to biomedicine can raise new ways to approach research questions that to address clinical problems. The Journal of Clinical Epidemiology agreed to devote a special issue to research priority setting to publish my work along with my research collaborators. The results of this project were part of a REF impact story that was submitted in 2014 http://impact.ref.ac.uk/CaseStudies/CaseStudy.aspx?Id=4645and praised by the REF panel for its reach and significance. There are organisations around the world that use the publications to implement new approaches to set priorities in their organisation. Some of these key publications includes:

·        Nasser M, Ueffing E, Welch V & Tugwell P 2013 'An equity lens can ensure an equity-oriented approach to agenda setting and priority setting of Cochrane Reviews' J Clin Epidemiol 66, (5) 511-521.

·        Nasser M, Welch V, Tugwell P, Ueffing E, Doyle J & Waters E 2013'Ensuring relevance for Cochrane reviews: evaluating processes and methods for prioritizing topics for Cochrane reviews' J Clin Epidemiol 66, (5) 474-482.

·        Rosala-Hallas A, Bhangu A, Blazeby J, Bowman L, Clarke M, Lang T,Nasser M, Siegfried N, Soares-Weiser K & Sydes MR 2018 'Global health trials methodological research agenda: results from a priority settingexercise' Trials 19, (1).

There are some videos available that outline the work that we are doing:

·        A video explaining our work on funders and reducing research waste https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cgvaSk3wwM&t=100s

·        A video explaining on research priority setting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaB074Rgg7w

Current research Students and Staff:

·        Sumanth Kumbargere (PhD student - Director of Studies) – An Equity-Oriented approach to setting priorities for Research

·        Agatha Haines (PhD student - Second Supervisor) – Ideas Exchange-understanding the human objective (part of the Cognovo project - www.cognovo.eu)

Related current funding:

CA17117 -Towards an International Network for Evidence-based Research in Clinical Health Research

Using a combination of clinical epidemiology and creative and interdisciplinary approaches to innovate the concepts of clinical trials for future space mission and develop methods to conduct systematic reviews focused on aerospace medicine

We piloted and used methods of evidence synthesis and mapping to provide an overview of evidence for certain research questions as part of the aerospace medicine systematic review group. Two of the systematic reviews are already published:

·        Winnard A, Nasser M, Debuse D, Stokes M, Evetts S, Wilkinson M, Hides J& Caplan N 2016 'Systematic review of countermeasures to minimise physiological changes and risk of injury to the lumbopelvic area following long-term microgravity' Musculoskeletal Science and Practice 27, S5-S14.

·        Richter C, Braunstein B, Winnard A, Nasser M & Weber T 2017 'HumanBiomechanical and Cardiopulmonary Responses to Partial Gravity – A SystematicReview' Frontiers in Physiology 8.

This includeddeveloping new methodological tools like judging the quality and indirectnessof bed rest studies https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318744754_AMSRG_Bed_Rest_Assessment_Tool_v11.

In addition, as part of a collaboration with researchers from the Trans-technology Research group, the SEADS international network, CogNovo, the University of the Philippines, the Torbay Hospital Virtual Reality team, and enthusiastic independent researchers, we re-imagined how clinical trials could look in future interplanetary missions. The project was a combination of a methodological thought experiment and creative, interdisciplinary and interactive workshops. The project not only generated some suggestions for innovative methodological approaches for conducting clinical trials but also prompted a discussion on re-thinking the relation between patients and clinicians in the context of interplanetary missions. The results of the first part of the project was presented at the International Astronautical Conference(IAC) in Bremen Germany on 2 Oct 2018. In their abstract for “Conceptualising the design of clinical trials and its associated support systems in interplanetary missions”, the authors identify five key aspects for a conceptual framework to focus on patient commitment and motivation.

Nasser M,Peres N, Knight J, etc. Conceptualising the design of clinical trials and its associated support systems in interplanetary missions. 69th International Astronautical Conference 2018.

There are some videos available that outline the work that we are doing:

·        A video on the first workshop run in Torbay Hospital https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6--c2OIA8w/

·        A video explaining our work on aerospace medicine systematic reviews https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0XqsQgwG7E

Current Research Students or Staff:

Nick Perez(PhD student - third supervisor), cinematic interface for cognitive explorationin medical simulation (although the PhD is not directly related to the project,the knowledge and experience on using the cinematic interface was a keycomponent to inform the creative aspect of this project)

Innovativeapproaches towards to social engagement in research specifically on engagementof disadvantaged groups designing outcomes to predict reduction of oral healthinequalities.

We use an evidence based and inclusive approach to run our research programme. All of students and staff engage with stakeholders to prioritise, select research question, design and implement the research project. For example, two research questions by stakeholders was how to decrease waste in dental practice and the impact of fear and anxiety of dentist decision making. Both projects are ongoing – some related publications:

Plessas A,Delgado MB, Nasser M, Hanoch Y & Moles DR 2018 'Impact of stress on dentists' clinical performance. A systematic review' COMMUNITY DENTAL HEALTH35, (1) 9-15.

Richardson J,Grose J, Manzi S, Mills I, Moles DR, Mukonoweshuro R, Nasser M & Nichols A  2016 'What's in a bin: A case study of dental clinical waste composition and potential greenhouse gas emission savings' BRITISH DENTAL JOURNAL 220, (2)61-66

 This includes a research project that was recently prioritised and funded by the Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise. We conducted a systematic review of oral health inequality measures that was presented in IADR London in July 2018 and currently conducting interviews with homeless individuals and single mothers to design a new measurement tool.

There are some videos available that outline the work that we are doing:

·        A video on how a priority setting exercise lead to our research on sustainability in dental practices https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b3_qGu2URY

·        A video that outlines some of my early works on public engagement in research that long term led to these projects https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvXNN8gUexI&feature=youtu.be

Current Research Students or Staff:

·        Anastasios Plessas (ReM student, Director of Studies) – impact of stress on the practice of dentistry

·        Martha Paisi (Postdoctoral Fellow in Oral Health Inequalities), Impact of a community and patient-centred dental school on the existence and gradientof oral health inequalities in Devon and Cornwall

·        Shiammaa Al Mashhadani (PhD student, Director of Studies) Oral Healthcare of children with disability in United Arab Emirates

·        Fiona Cunningham (MSc student) What is the optimal treatment considering efficacy, occupational factors and cost effectiveness for treating non-cavitated occlusal caries in a military population: sealant or conventionalrestorations

·        Christopher Munn (MSc student) Calcium phosphate derivate and fluoride versus topical fluoride in patients with xeostemia

Related current funding:

PeninsulaDental Social Enterprise (PDSE), Impact of a community and patient-centred dental school on the existence and gradient of oral health inequalities in Devon and Cornwall

Dental Education and Training Limited, Developing sustainability in dental practice and education through an action research approach