PLoS Med 8(9): Sept 2011.
Setting Research Priorities to Reduce Global Mortality from Childhood Pneumonia by 2015
I Rudan, et al.
This paper aims to identify health research priorities that could assist the rate of progress in childhood pneumonia mortality reduction globally, as set out in the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal 4.
The authors applied the Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative methodology for setting priorities in health research investments. The process was coordinated by the World Health Organization.
Forty-five leading childhood pneumonia researchers suggested more than 500 research ideas, which were merged into 158 research questions that spanned the broad spectrum of epidemiological research, health policy and systems research, improvement of existing interventions, and development of new interventions.
Within the short time frame in which gains were expected globally, the research priorities were dominated by health systems and policy research topics (e.g., studying barriers to health care seeking and access, as well as barriers to increased coverage with available vaccines; and evaluating the potential to safely scale up antibiotic treatment through community health workers).
