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. 2025 Aug 27;13(1):47.
doi: 10.1186/s40560-025-00816-9.

Evaluation of clinical research priorities in Asian intensive care units (ERA-ICU)

Collaborators, Affiliations

Evaluation of clinical research priorities in Asian intensive care units (ERA-ICU)

Andrew Li et al. J Intensive Care. .

Abstract

Background: Practice and delivery of critical care in Asia varies according to healthcare structure, income setting, and cultural factors. Identifying research priorities specific to ICU patients and healthcare workers in Asia is needed to guide advancement of critical care in the region.

Methods: This was an international cross-sectional survey study with adapted methods from nominal group techniques. All members of the Asian Critical Care Clinical Trials (ACCCT) Group were invited to submit research question suggestions. Submitted research questions were combined into summarized research questions, grouped into research themes, and individually ranked by number of mentions based on the original question submission (popularity). National and Regional Representatives rated the top 15% most popular summarized research questions by pre-defined importance and feasibility criteria.

Results: Between September 20, 2024 and December 10, 2024, 160 of 228 general members of the ACCCT Group (response rate 70.2%) participated in this survey study. The participants were from 112 hospitals across 24 countries and regions within Asia. Participants submitted 408 research questions, which were categorized into 15 themes and combined into 197 summarized research questions. The top three themes, as ranked by the number of mentions, were infection/sepsis, general ICU care, and structure/training/staffing/teamwork/safety. A threshold of 4 mentions was used to identify 26 summarized research questions that represented the top 15% most popular questions. Research questions related to sepsis and acute respiratory distress syndrome were ranked most important and feasible across the region.

Conclusion: Twenty-six of the most popular research questions in critical care were identified by Asian ICU workers and researchers to drive research agenda in Asia for the next decade.

Keywords: Agenda; Clinical study; Critical care; Feasibility; Importance; Interest; International; Investigation; Relevance.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study was approved by the Survey and Behavioural Research Ethics Committee of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (SBRE-23-0325). Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Geographical distribution of participants. The geographical distribution of phase 2 survey participants
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Popularity of research themes. The proportion of mentions from all suggested research questions accumulated by all research themes. AKI acute kidney injury, ECLS extracorporeal life support
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Priority ranking of top 26 summarized research questions. Priority ranking of the top 26 summarized research questions by overall importance and feasibility score. Popularity of each summarized research question is calculated from the number of mentions for each question from 408 original submitted research questions in phase 2

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