The Foot Health Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) is launching a foot health research survey and invites the public to participate. Betafeet Podiatry ( www.betafeetpodiatry.co.uk ) is delighted to share this with our readers to encourage as much participation as possible, across a broad spectrum.

It is essential that future foot health research focuses on the right challenges and supports the most important aspects of foot health. The PSP is about giving a voice to those most intimately concerned with foot health issues – patients, carers and health professionals.

The PSP https://salford.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/foot-health-priority-setting-partnership-survey is a collaboration between the School of Health Sciences at the University of Salford ( https://www.salford.ac.uk/health-sciences ) and the James Lind Alliance ( http://www.jla.nihr.ac.uk/ ). It is funded by the William M Scholl Endowment Fund, a charity of the Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust ( www.dr-william-m-scholl-endowment-fund-cnwl-nhs-foundation-trust ).

The Foot Health PSP will ensure that future research will be focused on the questions that matter most to people with foot and lower limb problems, their carers and the health care professionals who treat them.

What sort of research questions?

The questions can be related to any aspect of foot health including NHS service provision, treatments from health professionals and ‘over the counter’ remedies, and health issues where feet are important, such as the risk of falling in older people, or preventing amputations after a foot ulcer. It might also relate to sports injuries, footwear or common foot skin and nail problems.

All the questions received will be considered. The questions will be grouped together by topic and then checked to see if they have already been answered by existing research. If PSP find answers to these questions, it will publish the research through their website.

Any new and unanswered questions will then be ranked in order of their importance using a further survey. This will produce a short list that goes to a ‘Final Workshop’ where the list of Top 10 research questions will be produced.

These questions will be widely publicised with researchers and funders of health care research with the aim of directing research funding towards these questions. The William M Scholl Endowment Fund will use the “top ten” as the basis of their future research funding strategy.

The PSP Protocol is available HERE .

The foot health research survey is now LIVE: Click here to participate online! Click here for an Easy read version. Deadline for receipt of completed surveys is 31 January 2019.

You may wish to use our ‘Find your foot pain’ click tab on the Betafeet website ( https://betafeetpodiatry.yourfootpain.co.uk/ ) to help you in completing the survey.

We hope you will agree to take part in this important research survey. Quality foot health care has become increasingly important given the decline in NHS foot health care provision and growing health issues such as diabetes.