National research guideline for prehospital emergency medical care A prospective Delphi-study

Objectives: To identify the most important research topics to establish a national research agenda and protocol for prehospital research in Saudi Arabia (KSA). Methods: A 3-round modified Delphi consensus methods were used to determine high-priority research topics. Round I included an open-ended question to list all high-priority research topics in a prehospital setting in Riyadh, KSA. Rounds II and III included ranking evaluation and consensus agreement. The included topics were listed based on the agreement of ≥70% of the experts participating in the study. The study was carried out between November 2021 and February 2022. Results: In total, 100 prehospital experts in KSA were invited to participate in all 3 rounds. Of these, 47 responded in round I, 34 in round II, and 39 in round III. In round I, participants submitted 278 research topics. After deduplication and sorting, 78 topics were assessed in the other 2 rounds. Conclusion: In this modified Delphi study, an expert panel identified the top prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) care research priorities. The leading research priorities included clinical and operational ideas. The proposed 32 high-priority topics can be used to guide researchers, research networks, policymakers, and funding organizations involved in EMS.