Selecting the Priority Research Topics Addressing Unmet Post-immunization Safety Needs: A Model for Generating Research Proposal and Designing a Questionnaire for the Clinical Experts

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To gather inputs from clinical experts on selecting and prioritizing research topics, to address unmet vaccine safety needs. METHODS: A questionnaire containing 15 vaccine safety assessment research proposals was sent to 28 vaccine experts chosen from various domestic medical association boards, and the rationale for each of the proposals was provided by presenting the following information 1) a brief summary of the clinical safety studies on the vaccine, conducted by the Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment (CISA) project group, supervised by the United States Center for Disease Control (U.S. CDC), and 2) a summary of recently published studies that address vaccine safety issues. The experts were instructed to select and rank 5 topics in the order of preference, and the preference score for each proposed topic was calculated by assigning points on a scale of 1 to 5. RESULTS: All 28 experts responded to the questionnaire, and the following topics were selected according to their calculated preference scores 1) Human papillomavirus vaccine safety profile in the Korean female adolescents; 2) A signal detection of adverse events following Influenza vaccination comparison between the US and South Korea; 3) Incidence of anaphylaxis following National Immunization Program vaccines between 2008 and 2017; 4) Safety of quadrivalent influenza vaccines compared to trivalent influenza vaccines; and 5) Pneumococcal vaccine safety profile in the general population. CONCLUSION: Five research topics addressing vaccine safety were selected, for which well-constructed research protocols need to be promptly developed to address current unmet vaccine safety needs in South Korea.