Development and evaluation of a quality assessment tool for equality, diversity and inclusion (QUALITY-EDI) within healthcare research
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background: Implementing equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in healthcare research is critical to ensuring findings are translatable and provide the greatest benefit to patients who need it most. We aimed to develop a quality assessment scoring tool (QUALITY-EDI) to evaluate the conduct of EDI in healthcare research across all stages of the research cycle. To achieve this, we established a diverse, multidisciplinary working group of 22 members including clinicians, researchers, and patient and public advocates. Using the National Institute for Health and Care Research’s existing Research Support Service EDI toolkit as an initial framework, we held an EDI workshop with 16 public representatives to co-design elements of the proposed EDI quality assessment tool. The tool was subsequently refined by the working group to have eight domains (each with two sub-domains): (i) research context; (ii) study design; (iii) data collection; (iv) data analysis and interpretation; (v) knowledge mobilisation; (vi) research team diversity; (vii) patient and public involvement; and (viii) budgeting for research inclusion. Elements within each sub-domain were graded as being either “fully met” (2 points), “partially met” (1 point) or “not reported” (0 points), for a maximum EDI quality score of 32 points. To assess usability and inter-rater reliability, the QUALITY-EDI tool was independently evaluated by three raters using 80 published studies investigating non-invasive diagnostic biomarkers for the early detection of gastrointestinal cancers. We anticipate that QUALITY-EDI can be used by researchers, journal editors, reviewers, funders, lay members, and other interest-holders to assess and monitor the quality of EDI implementation.
Date Acceptance
2026-07-23
Citation
The BMJ
ISSN
0959-8146
Publisher
BMJ Publishing Group
Journal / Book Title
The BMJ
Copyright Statement
Subject to copyright. This paper is embargoed until publication. Once published the Version of Record (VoR) will be available on immediate open access.
Publication Status
Accepted