PARTICIPANTS NEEDED FOR DELPHI SURVEY

Ethics Approval Reference: MS IDREC 676316

Would you like to contribute to the development of a PRISMA extension for systematic reviews of health economic evaluations (PRISMA-EconEval)?

Systematic reviews of health economic evaluations play a crucial role in informing evidence-based healthcare decisions, yet they lack standardisation in reporting. This project aims to develop an extension to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guideline to cover systematic reviews of health economic evaluations (PRISMA-EconEval). It is hoped that PRISMA-EconEval will enhance the completeness, transparency and structure of how systematic reviews of health economic evaluations are reported and become a user-friendly tool for authors, editors, peer-reviewers and other stakeholders who produce and utilise systematic reviews of health economic evaluations.

A key part of the development of PRISMA-EconEval is the Delphi survey which can help us reach consensus on what items should be included in PRISMA-EconEval and thus reported by future systematic reviews of health economic evaluations.

If you choose to participate in the Delphi survey, you will be invited to an online survey platform using a password-protected link sent by email. There, you will be asked to rate the importance of including a series of items in the PRISMA-EconEval check. You will also get the chance to suggest new items yourself. You may then be invited to a second round of survey to conduct the same rating exercise for items we are still unsure about, and possibly to a third round if unsure items remain. Each survey round will take around 30-45 minutes of your time. Your identity and your survey responses will not be known to other participants.

We are looking for individuals who are:

• health economists,
• systematic reviewers or information specialists,
• reporting guideline developers,
• journal editors,
• health care decision-makers and health research funders, and/or
• patient and public representatives.

We particularly welcome participants from low- and middle-income countries.

If you participate in all Delphi survey rounds, you may also be invited to the online consensus meeting to help finalise the PRISMA-EconEval guidance. This will be attended by around 30 individuals and will be recorded.

The expected dates of the survey are:

Round 1: July 2025

Round 2: August 2025

Round 3 (if needed): September 2025

Please note these dates may change subject to the progress of the study.

Please download here the Participant Information Sheet (Version 1.1; May 2025) with more details on the study. If you have any further questions, please contact Dr Phuong Bich Tran (phuong.tran@phc.ox.ac.uk).

If you would like to participate, please sign the online Informed Consent Form (Version 1.1; February 2025) here. This will also ask for your name, email and profession. We will delete your submitted information if you do not eventually participate in the Delphi survey.

There is no obligation to take part and you can withdraw at any stage of the research.

Thank you!