The OSCAR study - Patient outcomes for scar management therapy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
What outcomes matter to adult burns patients that have experienced scar management therapy? (The OSCAR study)
IRAS ID
206685
Contact name
Jane Jones
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Birmingham
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
RG_16_059, UoB Research Governance Ref
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 2 months, 30 days
Research summary
Patients and their families deserve to receive the best possible treatment for their health condition. Trial evidence will influence which treatments are used. It is important that outcomes selected for use in a trial are relevant to all stakeholders including patients, not just clinicians and academics. Evidence suggests that patient views on which outcomes are most important to them differ to those clinicians consider important.
A core outcome set (COS) is a set of outcomes to be reported as a minimum in each trial in a specific health area. This is not restrictive however as researchers can include additional outcomes that are relevant to their own research. Work to establish the best methods and processes to develop a COS is ongoing but currently no optimum process has been identified or recommended for incorporating all stakeholder views and in particular those of patients.
One way to address this is through qualitative research, as these qualitative data collection methods offer an invaluable opportunity to understand patients’ expectations of their treatments. Currently relatively few COS exercises incorporate qualitative methods. The nature of the data collected to inform COS development may differ depending on which qualitative data collection method is used. New approaches to data collection may also be considered such as online focus groups/forums
Using a case study of scar management for burns patients this research aims to compare the findings from three different types of qualitative data collection; semi-structured interviews, face-to-face and asynchronous online focus groups.
REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/WM/0307
Date of REC Opinion
24 Aug 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion