Cochrane author’s work acknowledged in NIHR co-production publication

Alex involved stroke survivors, carers, physiotherapists and educators in an update of a Cochrane systematic review relating to physiotherapy after stroke.

Cochrane author, and joint Co-ordinating editor, Alex Pollock, of Glasgow Caledonian University has seen her ground-breaking work in co-producing a Cochrane review included in a new UK’s National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) INVOLVE publication.

Alex involved stroke survivors, carers, physiotherapists and educators in an update of a Cochrane systematic review relating to physiotherapy after stroke. Her innovative work was included in Co-production in Action Number Two, as an example of good practice in Co-production, published in November 2019 by INVOLVE. You can hear Alex talk about her work in a webinar recorded ahead of the Cochrane Virtual Colloquium here.

Alex Pollock said “Our team was delighted that NIHR INVOLVE chose to include our example of involving people in our Cochrane review as part of their co-production collection.  I think that this highlights the fact that involving people in systematic reviews is now viewed as being as important as involving people in other areas of research, such as research prioritisation or primary research studies.   Although we don’t yet know the “best” way to involve people in reviews, our work on the ACTIVE project shows that there are some great examples of different ways of successfully involving people in reviews, including examples - like ours - where people have had real and meaningful control over key decisions relating to a review”.

Gary Hickey, of NIHR INVOLVE said” It’s great to see co-production gaining traction in various aspects of research, including Cochrane systematic reviews.  Alex’s example demonstrates how the public can work with researchers and healthcare professionals to analyse and interpret data and disseminate findings, ensuring that systematic reviews are more relevant and accessible.”

Alex’s work led to the ACTIVE project, supported by Cochrane Training and the Cochrane Consumer Network. This included a systematic scoping review aimed to document the evidence-base relating to stakeholder involvement in systematic reviews and to use this evidence to describe how stakeholders have been involved in systematic reviews. This was followed by the development of the ACTIVE framework that provides a structure to describe key components of stakeholder involvement within a systematic review. The ACTIVE framework may support the decision-making of systematic review authors in planning how to involve stakeholders in future reviews. The learning resource Involving People turned this work into guidance for systematic review authors who wish to involve stakeholders in producing their reviews.

the development of
the
ACTIVE framework
that provides a structure to describe key components of
stakeholder involvement within a systematic review. The ACTIVE framework may
support the decision-making of systematic review authors in planning how to
involve stakeholders in future reviews. The learning resource
Involving People
turned this work into guidance for systematic review authors who wish to involve
stakeholders in producing their reviews.
Tuesday, December 3, 2019