Elbow Conditions Question Verification Form

The purpose of this Question Verification Form is to enable Priority Setting Partnerships (PSPs) to describe clearly how they checked that their questions were unanswered, before starting the interim prioritisation stage of the process.

The JLA requires PSPs to be transparent and accountable in defining their own scope and evidence checking process. This will enable researchers and other stakeholders to understand how individual PSPs decided that their questions were unanswered, and any limitations of their evidence checking.

Name of the PSP

Common Elbow Conditions Priority Setting Partnership

Please describe the scope of the PSP

The aim of Common Elbow Conditions PSP is to identify the unanswered questions related to common elbow conditions. The PSP will broadly cover the following conditions affecting the elbow: arthritis (osteoarthritis, inflammatory arthropathy), elbow stiffness, tendonitis (including tennis elbow, golfers’ elbow, bicipital and triceps tendonitis), elbow trauma, elbow arthroplasty, ulnar nerve pathology and biceps tendon rupture. The PSP has a wide scope encompassing: 1) Surgical interventions; 2) Non-surgical interventions; 3) Therapy management (physiotherapy, rehabilitation, self-management, other interventions); 4) Assessment/Diagnosis.

Please provide a brief overview of your approach to checking whether the questions were unanswered

A broad approach to checking question uncertainties was taken through literature searching on common database platforms assessing high levels of evidence through an experienced medical information specialist. These databases and broad searches used condition specific MeSH terms to identify meta-analysis, systematic reviews and randomised control trials pertaining to these questions. Guidelines and guidance available were also searched though search engines online.

Please list the type(s) of evidence you used to verify your questions as unanswered

Meta-analyses, systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials, clinical guidelines.

Please list the sources that you searched in order to identify that evidence

MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Cochrane central database, Cochrane Library, and NICE guidance.

What search terms did you use?

Each of the conditions was searched with specific terms (a full list of search terms is available).

An example of a condition:
Arthritis: elbow, arthritis, arthropathy, osteo*, rheumat*, inflame*, surg*, operat*, conserve*, non-opera*, outcome, pain, motion, movement, imaging, radiograph, ultraso*, magnetic*, CT*

Please describe the parameters of the search (e.g. time limits, excluded sources, country/language) and the rationale for any limitations

Time limits: From 2015 till current
Language: English / English translation
Exclusion: Main text not available in English.
Country: Not limited

Names of individuals who undertook the evidence checking

Pip Divall
Stuart Glover
Alison Harte
Louise Hull
Tanya McLaven
Coral Pepper

On what date was the question verification process completed?

14/04/2021

Any other relevant information

Results were reviewed by the members of the Steering Group to check that significant articles had been included.