Diverticular Disease Priority Setting Partnership

Bowel Research UK and Guts UK are collaborating on a Priority Setting Partnership for diverticular disease. We’re excited to work with Guts UK and interested patients, carers and healthcare professionals on this project.

What is diverticular disease?

A diverticulum (or diverticulae if there are more than one) is a small out-pouching from the wall of the gut. They are usually found in the large bowel on the left side but can develop in any part of the gut. If these diverticulae cause symptoms, this is known as diverticular disease, and if they become infected or inflamed this is diverticulitis. Symptoms that arise from infection can include tummy pain, fever, constipation or diarrhoea, or blood in your stool. You can read more about diverticular disease here.

What is a Priority Setting Partnership?

A Priority Setting Partnership or PSP is a project that aims to discover the top ten research priorities for a health condition. It brings together patients, carers, researchers, and healthcare professionals to find out what really matters in a particular area. We are working with the James Lind Alliance to set up this PSP, which will identify and prioritise unanswered questions around diverticular disease. A PSP is just the beginning of research, as once the top ten priorities are identified, other researchers can use this to decide what to research in order to provide diverticular disease patients with the help they need the most.

How can you get involved?

We launched our first survey for this project earlier in the year to ask what questions patients, carers and healthcare professionals would like to see answered. We have now launched a second survey, again asking for your input.

Please fill in the survey to tell us which of the listed questions are important to you as someone living with diverticular disease or treating or caring for someone with diverticular disease, diverticulitis or related conditions. Your answers will help researchers to understand what needs to be researched as a priority, resulting in improved patient care, treatments and quality of life. The survey will close on 13th January 2025.

Please also share the survey on social media, in any patient groups you are part of, and with anyone else you know who is affected by diverticular disease, who cares for someone who is, or who has an interest in diverticular disease as a healthcare professional.

Thank you very much for your help with this important project!

Listen to our podcast episode about the diverticular disease PSP here.

We are partnering with Guts UK

Guts UK is the charity for the digestive system; the gut, liver and pancreas. Find out more here: Guts UK.