Dr Mona Nasser

Conducing meta-research on how research funders contribute to reducing research waste - 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 healthcare 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.

Oral Health Inequalities - Measuring the impact of the Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise (PSDE) and the Dental School on oral health inequalities in Devon and Cornwall. I received funding from PDSE to conduct this project. 

Cochrane Priority Setting Methods Group ( http://priority.cochrane.org ): I conduct methodological and implementation research as part of an international collaboration of researchers and stakeholders with an interest in research priority setting methodology. This also included an interdisciplinary project as part of the larger Cognovo project ( www.cognovo.eu ) with colleagues from the arts, humanities and cognitive science. 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 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). 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 and 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.

Conducting and implementing systematic reviews on the effectiveness of healthcare interventions and develop methods in this field - (e.g. rehabilitation of astronauts as part of the newly established aerospace medicine systematic review group, local consensus process for implementing guidelines, updating the mandibular fracture review, updating the community-based interventions for promoting child oral health review), developing new methods on how to conduct systematic reviews (e.g. developing methods on the use of systematic reviews to inform future research, comparing the Cochrane Library with the Global Burden of Disease). These projects are part of international collaborations with Norwegian Knowledge Centre (Norway), University of Melbourne (Australia), UCL (UK), Northumbria University (UK), European Space Agency (Germany), University of Colorado (USA), University of Washington (USA) and the Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne (Australia). I have published these projects in well-known academic journals e.g. the BMJ (impact factor 2015- 19.697), the Cochrane Library(impact factor 2015- 6.035) and JAMA dermatology (impact factor 2015 - 5.097).I am also on the Steering group of “the Global Health Trials Methodology Research Agenda: a priority setting exercise” project. The project intends to identify priorities on trial methodology. The other steering group members are based in University of Birmingham (UK), University of Oxford (UK), University of Bristol (UK), Queen’s University of Belfast (Northern Ireland), South African Medical Research Council (South Africa), Cochrane Innovations (UK),University of College London (UK), University of Liverpool (UK), Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (China).

Interdisciplinary research to address priority research questions – I worked with academics from different fields to address questions that were prioritised as part of a process of stakeholder engagement. One such project,as mentioned above, was methodological research on how research priorities are set. Others were priority questions identified through consultation with dentists:  environmental sustainability in dental practices working with experts in this field in the faculty of health; and, in collaboration with psychologists, looking at the impact of fear and anxiety on dentists’ performance.

REF2014 Case impact stories:

Advancing methods for prioritising healthresearch (REF2014 impact story) - The results of my priority setting research projects highlighted the need forfurther research to evaluate and compare methods for setting priorities forresearch. This work led to an organizational change in the CochraneCollaboration. The Cochrane Collaboration is the leading evidence based healthcare organisation in the world. Systematic reviews published by the CochraneCollaboration are the most reliable source of evidence used by healthcareprofessionals around the world and are used widely to develop national andinternational clinical guidelines or health policies.  The results of my project formed the basisfor developing a new Methods Group within the Cochrane Collaboration: TheCochrane Priority Setting Methods Group (launched in 2011). This Group works totranslate the research on priority-setting processes mentioned above, intopolicy guidance for research groups within Cochrane. The policy guidance isdirected at over 100 Cochrane groups around the world. The importance of theresearch was recognized by the Collaboration in awarding me the Bill SilvermanPrize in 2012 and by Dame Sally Davies (at that time she was the Chief MedicalOfficer of NHS England) at the UK & Ireland Cochrane Contributors meetingin March 2013. She highlighted my work as a key development in Cochrane toensure that its reviews are relevant to the needs of the NHS. I also shared theresults of the priority-setting projects as they were conducted throughworkshops to communicate key issues that emerge, to raise awareness, and toincrease public engagement in research. In 2012, Cochrane Canada and the PanAmerican Health Organisations (PAHO) approached me to develop and organiseonline training resources on research priority setting, informed by ResearchPriority Setting (RPS) Research. These resources are available online at nocost to all global health researchers and Cochrane groups. The UK CochraneCentre requested an additional training session for the 25 UK-based CochraneReview Groups, and I organized it at the UK and Ireland Cochrane ContributorsMeeting in 2013.  My research was used todevelop training resources on RPS Methods for the Yorkshire and Humber ResearchDesign Service, part of the NHS that supports researchers to develop and designhigh quality research proposals. It was also used to inform the development ofa research priority setting process for systematic reviews on consumer andcommunication topics in La Trobe University (Australia). Following thepublication of the results, NETSCC/NIHR has approached me for advice on usingthe research to inform their processes. I am also on the steering group of the Evidence-Based Research network,which advocates for use of systematic reviews to inform future research. As partof my commitment to both research initiatives, I worked with colleagues anddeveloped and implemented successful processes and all our research studentsnow follow an evidence-based approach in their work. Our research studentsselect their key questions based on consultation with stakeholders or through apriority setting process, and then conduct systematic reviews before decidingwhether to embark on additional primary research. I am doing more work on howto make more systematic use of existing evidence to inform decisions aboutfuture research.