SIRS Awards the 2021 Research Harmonisation Award
The Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS) has awarded the 2021 Research Harmonisation Award (RHA) to the convener Sandra Bucci, Ph.D. from the University of Manchester.Â
The purpose of an RHA is to produce methods that will allow sharing and/or comparing data across countries to accelerate schizophrenia research internationally. The RHA is expected to harmonise measurement techniques or data sharing that will support funded studies that will boost research outcomes. Each year a new topic will be chosen and for 2021 the research topic was digital health.
If you have questions about the 2021 RHA awardee deliberations, please contact Sandra Bucci at sandra.bucci@manchester.ac.uk. To learn more about the SIRS RHA award, please click here.
A Message from Professor Sandra Bucci
On behalf of the Digital Health SIRS RHA group, we are thrilled to receive this award. There is currently no consistent approach for reporting adverse events associated with digital health platforms for psychosis/schizophrenia, which contrasts starkly with the extensive side-effect reporting required in pharmacological research. Our objective is to develop a comprehensive tool and procedure for reporting adverse events in studies using digital health platforms among people with experience of psychosis. We are a large and diverse group of senior, early career and service user researchers with representation from >5 countries. Our vision is to develop an open-source tool and reporting procedure to harmonise future adverse events reporting in digital health for psychosis studies across the world. With support from this award, we can now bring together leading researchers and research groups in the field to ensure a unified approach to how adverse events are captured and reported.
A Message from Dame Til Wykes, SIRS President
The Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS) has awarded its second Research Harmonisation Award (RHA) to a consortium headed by Professor Sandra Bucci. The proposal will answer very important questions for the future of digital mental health to identify and define adverse reactions that can be used in evaluations of eHealth and digital health interventions. In brief, they will draw on existing datasets and SIRS international experts to catalogue adverse events in twenty-two (22) digital health platforms across at least five (5) countries. The group will make use of shared empirical data for a Delphi exercise to define Adverse Events in a digital health context and identify the ideal reporting procedures. This will be of great use for software designers and researchers as service users will be closely involved in the definition process.
The purpose of an RHA is to produce methods that will allow sharing and/or comparing data across countries to accelerate schizophrenia research internationally. The RHA is expected to harmonise measurement techniques or data sharing that will support funded studies to boost research outcomes.
To learn more about the SIRS RHA award, please click here.
