The threat of serious, cross-border communicable disease outbreaks in Europe poses a significant challenge to public health and emergency preparedness because the relative likelihood of these threats and the pathogens involved are constantly shifting in response to a range of changing disease drivers. To inform strategic planning by enabling effective resource allocation to manage the consequences of communicable disease outbreaks, it is useful to be able to rank and prioritise pathogens. This paper reports on a literature review which identifies and evaluates the range of methods used for risk ranking. Searches were performed across biomedical and grey literature databases, supplemented by reference harvesting and citation tracking. Studies were selected using transparent inclusion criteria and underwent quality appraisal using a bespoke checklist based on the AGREE II criteria. Seventeen studies were included in the review, covering five methodologies. A narrative analysis of the selected studies suggests that no single methodology was superior. However, many of the methods shared common components, around which a 'best-practice' framework was formulated. This approach is intended to help inform decision makers' choice of an appropriate risk-ranking study design.

The studyA patient-centred intervention to improve the management of multimorbidity in general practice: the 3D RCT. Salisbury C, Man M-S, Chaplin K, et al.Published in Health Serv Deliv Res 2019;7(5).  This study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Programme (project number 12/130/15).To read the full NIHR Signal, go to: https://discover.dc.nihr.ac.uk/content/signal-000658/patient-centred-care-for-multimorbidity-improves-patient-experience-but-quality-of-life-is-unchanged

The studyCoomarasamy A, Devall AJ, Cheed V, et al. A randomised trial of progesterone in women with bleeding in early pregnancy N Engl J Med 2019;380:1815-24.This project was funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme (project number 12/167/26).To read the full NIHR Signal, go to https://discover.dc.nihr.ac.uk/content/signal-000792/miscarriage-not-prevented-by-routine-use-of-progesterone