Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Jul 2;16(1):57.
doi: 10.1186/s12961-018-0313-1.

Priority-setting in health research in Iran: a qualitative study on barriers and facilitators

Abbas Badakhshan  1   2 , Mohammad Arab  3 , Arash Rashidian  3 , Neda Mehrdad  4   5 , Kazem Zendehdel  6   7
Affiliations

Priority-setting in health research in Iran: a qualitative study on barriers and facilitators

Abbas Badakhshan et al. Health Res Policy Syst. .

Abstract

Background: Priority-setting is a complicated and time-consuming process; however, if appropriately conducted, it could efficiently divert resources to the most important studies. A considerable body of evidence indicates that priority-setting measures in health research taken so far in Iran have not satisfied decision-makers, policy-makers, funders, communities, or even researchers. This study was designed to explore the flaws of these measures and their deciding factors.

Methods: We conducted semi-structured interviews with 23 key participants and used a thematic data-analysis approach to analyse verbatim transcripts and documents. Our interviewees, who were skilful at conducting health research and worked as managers at different levels of the health system, were selected using a purposeful sampling. We asked about their experiences of priority-setting in health and relevant challenges and asked for recommendations. These semi-structured interviews were taped, transcribed and analysed in terms of content and themes using the MAXQDA10 qualitative data-analysis software.

Results: With regard to priority-setting facilitators and barriers, four themes were extracted, namely managerial factors, structural factors, motivational factors, and process factors. Managers' commitment, consideration of intellectual property, compliance with superordinate rules, and provision of a definition of reliable criteria were among the facilitators. The rapid turnover of managers, inefficiency of criteria for faculty promotion, and disregard of appeal mechanisms were examples of the barriers.

Conclusion: It is important to consider appropriate regulations and motivations to provide research priorities and divert scarce resources to them. In addition, it is necessary to improve the knowledge and skills of researchers and research administration offices on priority-setting methods, thereby enhancing priority-oriented research projects.

Keywords: Health research; Iran; management; priority-setting.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

References

    1. World Health Organization . The World Health Report 2013. Geneva: WHO; 2013.
    1. Lomas J, Fulop N, Gagnon D, Allen P. On being a good listener: setting priorities for applied health services research. Milbank Q. 2003;81(3):363–388. doi: 10.1111/1468-0009.t01-1-00060. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mills BF, Karanja DD. Processes and methods for research programme priority setting: the experience of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute Wheat Programme. Food Policy. 1997;22(1):63–79. doi: 10.1016/S0306-9192(96)00031-0. - DOI
    1. Currat LJ. Complementary approaches for priority setting in health research: review and perspectives. In: Global Forum for Health Research. 10/90 Report on Health Research. Geneva: Global Forum for Health Research; 2000. p. 17–42.
    1. Sibbald SL, Singer PA, Upshur R, Martin DK. Priority setting: what constitutes success? A conceptual framework for successful priority setting. BMC Health Serv Res. 2009;9:43. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-9-43. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources