Identifying research priorities for post-collision care in the United Kingdom: protocol for a road injury priority setting partnership
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background Road traffic injury remains a significant global health challenge, causing over 1.2 million deaths and tens of millions of non-fatal injuries each year. In the United Kingdom (UK), more than 1,600 people died and nearly 30,000 sustained serious injuries on the roads in 2024. While improvements in vehicle design, road infrastructure, emergency response, and road user behaviour have contributed to a sustained reduction in road deaths over recent decades, outcomes for those injured remain variable, and post-collision care has received comparatively less research attention. The Road Injury Chain of Survival framework identifies five interdependent stages where timely, coordinated interventions can improve survival and recovery, however, there has been no systematic effort to define
the most important research questions in this area.
Methods This protocol describes a UK-wide Road Injury Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) conducted using the
established methodology of the James Lind Alliance. Research uncertainties will be gathered via a national open access survey and supplemented by a targeted evidence scan of published research recommendations and clinical guidelines. Submissions will be collated, categorised, and checked against the current evidence base to ensure that only true uncertainties progress. A multi-stakeholder consensus workshop, using the Nominal Group Technique, will identify a ‘Top 10’ list of research priorities. A secondary output will map priorities to each stage of the Road Injury
Chain of Survival to guide targeted research and innovation.
Discussion This is the first PSP focused specifically on post-collision care in the UK. By integrating the perspectives of patients, carers, bystanders, clinicians, policymakers, and researchers, the PSP aims to produce priorities that are directly actionable and relevant to national needs. The findings will inform funders, guideline developers, and service providers, supporting more effective allocation of resources and driving improvements in survival, recovery, and patient experience after road traffic injury.
the most important research questions in this area.
Methods This protocol describes a UK-wide Road Injury Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) conducted using the
established methodology of the James Lind Alliance. Research uncertainties will be gathered via a national open access survey and supplemented by a targeted evidence scan of published research recommendations and clinical guidelines. Submissions will be collated, categorised, and checked against the current evidence base to ensure that only true uncertainties progress. A multi-stakeholder consensus workshop, using the Nominal Group Technique, will identify a ‘Top 10’ list of research priorities. A secondary output will map priorities to each stage of the Road Injury
Chain of Survival to guide targeted research and innovation.
Discussion This is the first PSP focused specifically on post-collision care in the UK. By integrating the perspectives of patients, carers, bystanders, clinicians, policymakers, and researchers, the PSP aims to produce priorities that are directly actionable and relevant to national needs. The findings will inform funders, guideline developers, and service providers, supporting more effective allocation of resources and driving improvements in survival, recovery, and patient experience after road traffic injury.
Date Issued
2025-12-29
Date Acceptance
2025-11-13
Citation
Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine, 2025, 33 (1)
ISSN
1757-7241
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Start Page
203
Journal / Book Title
Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine
Volume
33
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/41466433
PII: 10.1186/s13049-025-01513-0
Subjects
Emergency care
James Lind Alliance
Patient and public involvement
Post-collision care
Rehabilitation
Research priorities
Road traffic injury
Trauma
United Kingdom
Humans
Accidents, Traffic
Wounds and Injuries
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
203
Date Publish Online
2025-12-29