Spotlight on Research

The practice of prehospital critical care teams has evolved rapidly over the last decade or more, but there remains only limited research to inform its practice.

Seemingly, despite previous reports describing research priorities in the field, inadequate progress has been made in answering those research questions. This study aimed to define the current research priorities in UK prehospital critical care.

The Pre-HOspital Trainee Operated research Network (PHOTON) adopted a modified national Delphi study, conducted in four rounds, between October 2021 and April 2022. Rounds 1 and 2 were conducted online with clinicians involved in prehospital critical care delivery and non-clinical prehospital researchers. Rounds 3 and 4 were completed online by a subject matter expert (SME) panel.

Participants were either UK-based clinicians with at least 6 months of full-time experience working in a prehospital critical care role, or in a non-clinical role within a prehospital critical care team but involving an active research component. The demographics of the participants can be found in the study as can details of the Delphi outcomes.