Snapshot Research
Snapshot research is a relatively new cross-sectional study design, introduced in the United Kingdom in 2013. It is a form of collaborative research which is primarily initiated and conducted by residents, supervised by consultants. Snapshot research is particularly suited to investigate a common condition or treatment. By generating a population-based overview, this design rapidly provides insight in current clinical practice. Variation in practice enables to identify best practices and allows for hypothesis generating comparative analyses.
Collaborative research
With this collaborative research concept, one or two residents per participating hospital are responsible for data collection and for entering the data into an electronic database. One of the incentives for residents to participate is that every contributor will be listed in the collaborative study group on all publications originating from the database. Moreover, it is an easy, time effective manner to get in touch with doing research and to expand the scientific circle. Using the principles of collaborative research, a large amount of data can be collected in a short time frame, while the workload for each participating hospital remains limited.
Collaborators ListSnapshot Research in the Netherlands
In 2013, the National Surgical Research Collaborative published nationwide (British) outcomes of emergency appendectomy. In a study period of only two months, a total of 3326 patients were prospectively included from 95 hospitals. In analogue to this study, five successful Snapshot studies have been performed in the Netherlands: first the Snapshot study on appendicitis, followed by projects on rectal cancer, acute left-sided obstructive colon cancer, histopathological examination of appendix and galbladder and adhesive small bowel obstruction. Currently, patients for five new different Snapshot studies are being recruited.
Projects