Engaging with stakeholders in a research programme to promote implementation of pulmonary rehabilitation in Bangladesh: Challenges and opportunities

摘要

The engagement of stakeholders can improve research prioritisation, implementation, and outcomes [1]. Stakeholders may be defined as the individuals and organisations having an interest or ‘stake’ in the outcome of a programme or project [2]. Stakeholder engagement is a process of building relationships through communication and shared decision-making at all stages of the research cycle [3]. Although the concept has been well established in high income countries for at least two decades, even there the optimal timing and methods remain uncertain due to inadequate evaluation [1]. In contrast, it is still a new concept in many low and middle income countries (LMICs) [4] including Bangladesh. An estimated 85% of global investment in health and biomedical research is wasted each year because of re- dundancy, failure to prioritise the needs of stakeholders, poorly designed research methods, and inade- quate reporting of study results [5]. Engaging with relevant stakeholders early during the prioritisation, design and planning stages of research could help divert appropriate resources and funding to much needed but low prioritised areas of health care. Despite availability of frameworks for stakeholder engage- ment, little is known about ‘why’, ‘who’, ‘how’, and ‘when’ engagement strategies are being implemented in LMICs to influence outcomes and if/how they achieve success.