Since the first news article, the company has published in line with the objective of one thought leader piece per month, more in any single month if available content justifies additional articles. Looking back through the 70 articles it is possible to group the articles by theme or subject. Articles reporting on innovation and news relative to patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE), the cornerstone of HCD Economics research purpose, amount to just under a third of the total news archive (28%). Examples include the setting of the top 10 research priorities in haemophilia by the James Lind partnership, research confirming the relevance of patient and public involvement data in work undertaken by the Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre and an overnight report from a webinar involving the Universities of York, Sheffield and Nottingham entitled ‘Economic Modelling in Rare Diseases’.
Reports from conferences, deliberately concentrating on news from the conference proceedings and submitted by the member of the HCD Economics team assigned as reporter attending the conference, amount to nearly one fifth of news content (18%) as does news reporting important milestones in the progress of independent socio-economic studies which HCD Economics leads, often in partnership with relevant patient groups and the University of Chester.
The partnership with patient groups that HCD Economics is privileged to undertake means that it is appropriate to offer our news channel to them, to report important aspects of their work beyond the remit of our research collaboration. For this reason just over a fifth of news content (16%) has focused on reporting patient group inspired news. Examples include a report covering an announcement of key European policy from the International Gaucher Alliance, an article reporting the empowering value of real world evidence as stated by John James, CEO of the Sickle Cell Society and news of HACK IBD, a unique resourcing initiative led by Seb Tucknott CEO of IBD Relief.
The ethos of HCD Economics accounted for just under 10% of articles (9%) and included a report from an interview published in Rare Revolution magazine, where HCD Economics CEO Jamie O’Hara asserts the potential of real-world evidence to enable and support patient advocacy and an article announcing an internal staff well-being initiative led by newly appointed Jo Pitt, a psychologist specialising in group and individual counselling. This initiative was inspired by the need to recognise the importance of well-being, a need we can all attest to given lock down restrictions.
News of publications based on HCD Economics projects, were published as news features when results were considered to be newsworthy and consequently of value to the community who access the news page. Finally novel research techniques such as preference research and state of the art physical activity assessment were reported (7%) when they were deployed for the first time as solutions to challenging research questions.
HCD Economics remains committed to the news section and fully intend to continue to publish articles of genuine interest and value to all those committed to championing improved outcomes and better access for patients. For guidance on previously published articles, that may be useful to inform your current research questions, please contact Alison Rose alison.rose@hcdeconomics.com Alison also welcomes any suggestions for future news items.