Invitation to participate in the 2026 update of the James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership in Blood Transfusion and Blood Donation

The first James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership (JLA PSP) in Blood Transfusion and Blood Donation was completed in 2018. Its aim was to spotlight the unanswered questions about blood transfusion and blood donation and to prioritise them for future research. Since then while new research has been undertaken and new avenues of research have emerged, we know there remain many unanswered questions. 

During 2026 and 2027, we will be using JLA methodology to update the original PSP. Our aim is to identify new questions for research that will address ongoing important treatment uncertainties in the field of blood transfusion and blood donation. This update is being undertaken by the Systematic Review Initiative (a clinical research team in NHS Blood and Transplant who led the original PSP) and the Transfusion Research Network. 

We invite you to participate in the first stage of this update by completing a short survey which will take approximately 10 minutes to complete and contains three sections: 

• First, we ask you whether any of the previous top 10 research questions are currently important to you
• Second, we ask you for your ideas for future research to improve the experience of people who have received a blood transfusion or who donate blood.
• Third, we ask a few things about you (for example, age, area of work etc) 

Please share the survey with any UK based responders, colleagues or persons who may be interested in this work.

 After the survey closes the next steps are: 

1. Grouping similar questions and adding new questions to the list of unanswered questions from the original PSP. This set of questions is referred to as indicative questions. 
2. Searching the published and ongoing evidence bases to identify evidence relevant to any of the indicative questions. 
3. Assessing the quality of the identified evidence using the same assessment criteria as for the original PSP.
4. Small consultation groups will decide whether the evidence identified answers the research question. If yes, the research question is marked as answered and parked. If no, the ‘unanswered’ research question is moved into the final stage of the project.
5. A prioritisation workshop (face-to-face over a full day) will run next summer in Birmingham. The focus of the workshop is for the attendees to rank the unanswered research questions for the priority in which they should be addressed in a research environment.

If you completed the survey, you will be invited to join the workshop. 

For information on the project and the survey please contact Susan Brunskill on susan.brunskill@nhsbt.nhs.uk 

This James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership update for Blood Transfusion and Blood Donation is being led by:

Laura Baglow-Micic - Transfusion Research Network Manager

Susan Brunskill - Systematic Review Initiative Manager, NHS Blood and Transplant

Dr Michael Desborough - Consultant Haematologist and Clinical lead of the Transfusion Research Network

Professor Lise Estcourt - Clinical Lead for the Systematic Review Initiative and Medical Director Transfusion, NHS Blood and Transplant

Anna Mamwell - Patient and Public Involvement & Engagement Officer, Transfusion Research Network

Take the survey  

Laura Baglow-Micic, Transfusion Research Network Manager, Transfusion