As part of the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) Yorkshire & Humber focus on collaboration in March, we are revisiting a blog written by our Health Economics, Evaluation and Equality theme describing how collaborative working led to the development of an online resource to provide decision makers and the public, who may be new to the concept of economic evaluation, with a guide on what economic evaluation aims to achieve and introduce them to some related concepts and terminology.

The team used the collaborative knowledge and expertise from health economists who have had experience of working with decision makers and the public, to help describe some core aspects and ideas behind the basis of economic evaluation.  They then worked with colleagues to transfer the ideas into a visual web resource, with interactive elements to engage and help the public understand the concept of economic evaluation. 

As the team’s overall aim was to develop a resource that could be understood by the public and those new to economic evaluation, it was important to involve the ARC Yorkshire & Humbers Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) representatives. The YH ARC Co-Chair for the PPIE Leadership Group for the ARC, Ruby Bhatti, reviewed the web resource and provide valuable advice on the design, wording and user experience and said “The resource is an excellent tool which has been co-designed with PPIE members from the outset using plain English language to make it more inclusive.   We now can work along side other stakeholders and really engage and understand the purpose of economic evaluation and how this can be used to greatly benefit decisions made around our health and care”.  

The team behind the resource explains “We believe the resource will help those without in-depth health economics expertise to better understand and judge economic evidence.  It will help both the public and decision makers to work alongside researchers to better understand the purpose of economic evaluation, including when it might be useful and so could be used”. 

The interactive resource can be found on the Genially website and can be accessed here: https://view.genial.ly/6278d90db5e8f9001152a57f, just type your name in the "access this awesome content" box to begin. 

To read the original blog story please visit: https://www.arc-yh.nihr.ac.uk/news-events-and-media/blogs/economic-evaluation-online-resource

The NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Yorkshire and Humber conducts applied health research to improve the health and wellbeing of the 5.4 million people in the region. Bringing together expertise from universities, NHS trusts, local authorities and partners, the multidisciplinary team focuses on addressing the major health challenges faced by our population. We have four research themes aligned to regional and national priorities: Urgent Care, Older People, Healthy Families and Mental Health. So far, the ARC has leveraged over £62 million in funding, recruited over 50,000 research participants, collaborated with 41 organizations, worked on 296 projects, supported 72 PhD students, and published 168 papers. The ARC is funded by the NIHR.

For more information please visit https://www.arc-yh.nihr.ac.uk/