Centre for Reviews and Dissemination

Promoting the use of research based knowledge

ConclusionsThe characteristics of the research message are important when developing a disseminationstrategy and, through practical experience, we have found that an active approach isessential. General awareness raising by multiple routes ensures that the people who need toknow the findings of research get to hear about it, as shown by the access to the full reports.It is therefore best to make the most of any opportunities to promote key messages.

Further informationAll the reports can be downloaded free of charge from the CRD website at:www.york.ac.uk/inst/crd/crdpublications.htm

Challenges in disseminating review findings: a case study

Catriona McDaid, Alison Booth, Debra Fayter, Alison EastwoodCentre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York

The objective of this poster is to describe an active dissemination strategy, the thinking behind it, and to discuss the challenges and our experiences.

EvaluationIt is difficult to assess the effectiveness ofa dissemination strategy, particularly interms of whether the findings andrecommendations are read andassimilated by the target audience. In theabsence of a full independent evaluation,measures of access to publications can beused to give an indication of awareness:1837 copies of the summary report weresent out and 2728 emails of the pressrelease were sent to journalists viaAlphaGalileo. Within 7 months the fullreports had been accessed 11,961 times.

Opportunistic disseminationWhile developing the dissemination strategy, news brokethat six healthy volunteers taking part in phase 1 testing ofTGN1412 had developed severe adverse reactions.Participation in medical research became a high interesttopic in the media, amongst the public and in the researchcommunity. We brought forward our release date by 10days.

Scrip World Pharmaceutical News contacted us to write apiece on the research findings for a special supplement onpatient recruitment to trials. This required a turn-aroundwithin just a few days, however we recognised it as animportant opportunity to reach a wider and very relevantaudience than we had already achieved.

Messages

Audiences

Full Reports, available in print and electronically

Tailoring themessageThe summary report was written tohighlight the key messages and directreaders to the full reports. A pressrelease provided some 'bottom line'information and this was used forgeneral awareness raising for allforms of media as well as charitiesand consumer groups.

The message andaudienceThe decision that it was not feasible to proceedwith the third stage made us reassess themessage/s for dissemination and the audience/sthat should be targeted.

Neither of the completed reviews provided easyanswers. However, we felt there were importantmessages coming from the reviews in relation tothe implications for conducting trials and theimplications for future research. These messageswere felt to be relevant to three specificaudiences. We therefore decided that, in additionto publishing the reports of the reviews, we wouldactively disseminate the key messages.

Tailor messages

We were originally commissioned by the National Cancer Research Network to conduct three related systematic reviews to investigate:

• Barriers to participation in cancer trials

• Interventions to overcome barriers to participation in cancer trials

• Whether the interventions identified in the second review could be effectively implemented on a large scale to the wider public

Due to the lack of effective interventions identified in the second review we did not proceed to the third stage

Barriers to participationin cancer trialsThe review found that it was notpossible to identify barriers in a clear,reliable and consistent way from theprimary research.

Interventions toincrease participation incancer trialsThe review concluded that there wasno evidence that any of theinterventions increased patientparticipation.

Cancer trialists

Individuals and organisations involved in planning, funding, providing ethical approval and conducting trials

Researchers with an interest in barriers to participation and how to overcome them

Peer-reviewed articles Other articles: Scrip Supplement

Oral presentationKey messages:short report

Tailored press release:specific message forResearch EthicsCommittees

General awarenessraising: press release