By Roulla Katiri, PhD student CROSSSD (Core Rehabilitation Outcome Set for Single Sided Deafness) study, NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre
Much clinical research sets out to improve and develop new treatments for health conditions. But usually, no one piece of research is enough to be sure which treatments are best. We need to build up a body of many different research studies and then compare results across them. However, if different studies measure different things, it can be difficult to make sense of it all. That’s where core outcome sets come in. The aim is to encourage all researchers to measure, as a minimum, the same set of effects. This is so we can build a picture of which treatments work and don’t work more quickly. Read on to find out more about the new core outcome set for single-sided deafness – a condition that is common in patients with Ménière's disease.
The Ménière's Society has invested over £1.2 million to-date to support research, which is fantastic! However, research cannot be done without people generously giving their time to take part. Participation helps develop studies, progress research faster, and make it more meaningful to more people affected by a condition.
The CROSSSD study team set out in 2017 to form an international agreement on important outcomes to measure for single-sided deafness treatments. One of the central values of the study included involving, and sharing opinions, from people with lived experience of single-sided deafness, and professionals working in the field, equally. The response from members of the public was overwhelming. We are reporting on the study milestones and our future plans here.
Step 1 of the project involved making a comprehensive long list of all the outcomes measured in studies for single-sided deafness treatments to date, with the help of a detailed review.
Step 2 focused on gathering opinions about the importance of these outcomes from as many healthcare users with single-sided deafness and professionals working in the field internationally, using online surveys.
Step 3 focused on discussing the important outcomes everyone voted on during a 7-hour long international consensus meeting.
The long list of outcomes was reduced to three, which are: (1) Spatial orientation, (2) Group conversations in noisy social situations, and (3) Impact on social situations. Our short video provides a summary of the study outcomes. Everyone involved in the process agreed that these three outcomes are extremely important to always think about and measure in all single-sided deafness studies going forward.
The team are currently working on figuring out how these three outcomes should be measured in the future.
Thank you
Roulla Katiri presented the outcomes of the CROSSSD study at the recent Ménière's Society conference. You can view this presentation by watching this recording (38 minutes long). Working together was instrumental in overcoming the challenges of evaluating treatments for single-sided deafness. Thank you to everyone who got involved and has taken an interest in the study.
If you would like to take part in future hearing research, please register your interest by signing up to the Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre participant database.
Back to top