Identifying research priorities in anaesthesia and perioperative care: final report of the joint National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia/James Lind Alliance Research Priority Setting Partnership

Objective To identify research priorities for Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine. Design Prospective surveys and consensus meetings guided by an independent adviser. Setting UK. Participants 45 stakeholder organisations (25 professional, 20 patient/carer) affiliated as James Lind Alliance partners. OutcomesFirst ideas-gathering' survey: Free text research ideas and suggestions. Second prioritisation' survey: Shortlist of summary' research questions (derived from the first survey) ranked by respondents in order of priority. Final top ten': Agreed by consensus at a final prioritisation workshop. ResultsFirst survey: 1420 suggestions received from 623 respondents (49% patients/public) were refined into a shortlist of 92 summary' questions. Second survey: 1718 respondents each nominated up to 10 questions as research priorities. Top ten: The 25 highest-ranked questions advanced to the final workshop, where 23 stakeholders (13 professional, 10 patient/carer) agreed the 10 most important questions: ?What can we do to stop patients developing chronic pain after surgery? ?How can patient care around the time of emergency surgery be improved? ?What long-term harm may result from anaesthesia, particularly following repeated anaesthetics? ?What outcomes should we use to measure the success' of anaesthesia and perioperative care? ?How can we improve recovery from surgery for elderly patients? ?For which patients does regional anaesthesia give better outcomes than general anaesthesia? ?What are the effects of anaesthesia on the developing brain? ?Do enhanced recovery programmes improve short and long-term outcomes? ?How can preoperative exercise or fitness training, including physiotherapy, improve outcomes after surgery? ?How can we improve communication between the teams looking after patients throughout their surgical journey? Conclusions Almost 2000 stakeholders contributed their views regarding anaesthetic and perioperative research priorities. This is the largest example of patient and public involvement in shaping anaesthetic and perioperative research to date.