Analysis of the final workshop for the Priority Setting Partnership for hyperhidrosis

Introduction Hyperhidrosis is characterised by excessive sweating, and affects ~3% of the population. It can significantly affect quality of life. However, many people with hyperhidrosis don’t seek medical help due to the stigma associated with it, and those that do often struggle to find treatments that work for them. The Hyperhidrosis Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) aimed to bring together people with the condition, their friends and family, and healthcare professionals who treat them on an equal footing to have their say about the questions they want research to answer. A workshop event was the final stage of the process to identify the top ten research priorities Methods A steering group was formed including people with hyperhidrosis, patient support group representation, healthcare professionals and academics. A James Lind Alliance adviser was appointed to chair meetings and oversee the process. An initial survey asked people with hyperhidrosis, their family and friends, and healthcare professionals for the questions they would like research to answer about management and treatment of hyperhidrosis. From the initial 592 questions submitted, this was reduced to 45 by combining duplicate/similar questions, and removing those already answered by research. Survey respondents were then asked to choose their top ten from this list. The top 23 choices went through to a final workshop event, where the top ten were selected via a facilitated process. A questionnaire was carried out to analyse the success of the event itself. Results Seventy-two percent (13/18) of the final workshop participants completed the workshop questionnaire. 100% of respondents were satisfied or very satisfied that they were able to communicate their views and that they helped shape the final top ten list. 92% of respondents were very satisfied with the way the James Lind Alliance team facilitated the workshop. Conclusion PSPs are a very successful way of getting patients and healthcare professionals to have their say about research priorities. Those that took part in this PSP were very satisfied that they were helping to shape the research agenda for the treatment and management of hyperhidrosis.