Setting research priorities to improve global newborn health and prevent stillbirths by 2025

Abstract

Background In 2013, an estimated 2.8 million newborns died and 2.7 million were stillborn. A much greater number suffer from long term impairment associated with preterm birth, in - trauterine growth restriction, congenital anomalies, and peri - natal or infectious causes. With the approaching deadline for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015, there was a need to set the new research priorities on newborns and stillbirth with a focus not only on survival but also on health, growth and development. We therefore carried out a systematic exercise to set newborn health research pri - orities for 2013–2025. Methods We used adapted Child Health and Nutrition Re- search Initiative (CHNRI) methods for this prioritization exer - cise. We identified and approached the 200 most productive researchers and 400 program experts, and 132 of them submit - ted research questions online. These were collated into a set of 205 research questions, sent for scoring to the 600 identified experts, and were assessed and scored by 91 experts. Results Nine out of top ten identified priorities were in the do - main of research on improving delivery of known interven - tions, with simplified neonatal resuscitation program and clin - ical algorithms and improved skills of community health workers leading the list. The top 10 priorities in the domain of development were led by ideas on improved Kangaroo Mother Care at community level, how to improve the accuracy of di - agnosis by community health workers, and perinatal audits. The 10 leading priorities for discovery research focused on sta - ble surfactant with novel modes of administration for preterm babies, ability to diagnose fetal distress and novel tocolytic agents to delay or stop preterm labour. Conclusion These findings will assist both donors and re - searchers in supporting and conducting research to close the knowledge gaps for reducing neonatal mortality, morbidity and long term impairment. WHO, SNL and other partners will work to generate interest among key national stakehold- ers, governments, NGOs, and research institutes in these pri- orities, while encouraging research funders to support them. We will track research funding, relevant requests for propos- als and trial registers to monitor if the priorities identified by this exercise are being addressed