Title: PHR Public Health Review Team: The University of Sheffield
Funder: Department of Health and Social Care

Abstract: Background_x000D_ _x000D_ The National Institute for Health Research has asked research teams to put together bids to become a public health review team. Public health evidence reviews can examine research on a wide range of topics which have an impact on the health and wellbeing of the population, either as a whole or for specific communities or groups. The job of the team will be to carry out reviews which will look for, bring together, and evaluate research that has already been carried out. Researchers at The University of Sheffield are very experienced in this sort of research and can provide expertise across a wide range of topics. _x000D_ _x000D_ Aims_x000D_ _x000D_ The aim is that findings from reviews carried out by the team, will help in the planning of future public health programmes and research. We aim that our work will be useful for everybody who has involvement in public health._x000D_ _x000D_ Design and methods_x000D_ _x000D_ We plan to look at a wide selection of research on public health that is already available. It is important that the way we carry out the work is good value for money, and that we complete each project quickly and efficiently. To achieve this we will carry out an initial brief overview to find out what research is available. Then we will ask relevant people what might be of most interest and use, which we can then look at in more depth. In order to ensure that reviews are carried out efficiently we will use computer software to manage all the stages of the review. Additionally we plan to have several different members of the team available to work on the projects as and when needed. We will involve other people during all stages of each research project in order to ensure that we are asking the right questions, looking at a wide selection of research that is available, putting the results together in a meaningful way, and drawing conclusions that are helpful._x000D_ _x000D_ Public involvement_x000D_ _x000D_ Members of the public will be closely involved with the work of the team. We will use our existing public panels, together with networks of voluntary and community groups who will offer expertise for particular topics. The public will be involved in roles including helping the research teams to shape the research questions, adding knowledge to help understanding of what the findings mean, give advice on sharing the findings, and contribute to production of materials to ensure understanding of the findings among the wider community._x000D_ _x000D_ Sharing the research findings_x000D_ _x000D_ We will put in place a plan for each project, which details who the key people are that need to know about the findings of our research, and what ways we will use to inform them. It will be important to use lots of different ways of sharing the findings of our work, so that the information is in a form which is clearly understood and usable. We intend to use methods including producing written summaries of what we have found, short videos and presentations, toolkits, and will use social media to publicise findings. We have a wealth of experience in translating wide ranging reviews into useful products. For example we recently produced a widely shared poster which summarises the findings of our comparison of public health policy across the four countries of the UK. We also recently produced a checklist of factors influencing the implementation of integrated care programmes which is now being used by people engaged in service change in the NHS who have reported it has been helpful in developing local programmes.

Lay abstract: The role of the Public Health Review Team _x000D_ _x000D_ The Public Health Review team will produce reviews to inform the development and delivery of public health interventions with the aim of improving health and wellbeing and reducing health inequalities. We will produce reviews of the highest quality and value to decision makers through application of both topic and methods expertise and close working relationships with policymakers, practitioners and communities and across a diverse range of sectors and organisations._x000D_ _x000D_ Expertise and track record _x000D_ _x000D_ We have extensive experience over the last ten years of delivering reviews as a public health evidence synthesis team, originally as a Public Health Collaborating Centre for the National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE). We currently deliver highly responsive and flexible evidence review programmes for a number of other funders including our Health Services & Delivery Research Evidence Synthesis Centre, our Policy Research Unit in Economic Evaluation of Health and Social Care and the What Works for Wellbeing Programme. All these programmes require high levels of flexibility in terms of capacity and methods, both breadth and depth of expertise in a wide range of topics and disciplines, and tight project management to meet timescales. _x000D_ _x000D_ Methodological approach _x000D_ _x000D_ We anticipate that most reviews will require an initial scoping stage to ensure that a review will provide evidence of immediate value to the relevant evidence users and enable identification of relevant topic experts and key evidence users, in terms of both organisations and key individuals. Individual review protocols will be developed in close collaboration with the NIHR Public Health Research programme team as commissioners. The identification and retrieval of relevant evidence will be facilitated by collaboration between information specialists, topic experts, systematic reviewers and stakeholders. Methods for data extraction, evidence appraisal and synthesis will be tailored to the nature of the review question and the available evidence, as well as time and resource constraints. _x000D_ _x000D_ Dissemination and pathways to impact _x000D_ _x000D_ It is vital we engage with national and local government policymakers, practitioners and the wider community in sharing and mobilising the evidence we identify. We have previously presented our review findings to diverse audiences, from Select Committees to local tenant associations, and co-produced a range of creative materials to support knowledge mobilisation. These include videos, pen portraits, casebooks, toolkits and other “actionable tools”. We use social media to disseminate findings to target audiences, including online presentations and Twitter. We have a wealth of experience in translating wide ranging reviews into useful review products. _x000D_ _x000D_ Public involvement and engagement _x000D_ _x000D_ The public has a strong vested interest in ensuring that public health interventions and policies are informed by the best available evidence and can make an important contribution to the quality of evidence synthesis and dissemination. We will therefore use our existing public panels and networks of voluntary and community groups to support timely and meaningful public involvement across the review process and ensure that the findings are shared widely with the community using appropriate channels to reach those with an interest in the evidence and its implications.

Research activity codes: 3.1 PRIMARY PREVENTION INTERVENTIONS TO MODIFY BEHAVIOURS OR PROMOTE WELL-BEING;3.2 INTERVENTIONS TO ALTER PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE