Consulting Services -Tailored Solutions
For Your Health Research Needs
We provide tailored solutions for your health research needs and are happy to act in an advisory capacity either on an occasional, regular or even continuous basis. We can carry out the research for you if that is what you prefer.
Recommendations on appropriate research methods
Providing tailored solutions for your health research needs includes helping you choose the right methodology to collect data which should not be a do-it yourself activity unless you have the expertise. Tell us what you need to measure and we can either advise you or carry out the work for you, so you get the right information you need within the compressed timelines often demanded by the client.
Focus groups
We have used focus groups including patients, carers and front-line staff to capture perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards service delivery, experiences of their condition and treatment and COA evaluation. See our case studies.
Typically, we normally recruit between 8-10 people by location. Groups are guided by a research moderator who often uses a topic guide to control the discussion as well as other qualitative techniques to help solicit responses from participants.
In-depth interviews
We have carried out in-depth interviews with patients, carers, clinical, administrative, managers, frontline NHS staff and consultants for purposes including, factors contributing to ineffective health outcomes, patient experience and COA concept elicitation. See our case studies. We also use projective techniques and the laddering technique where a seemingly simple response to a question is pushed by the interviewer in order to find subconscious motives behind the response. Laddering is particularly useful for understanding patient behaviour and perceived outcomes.
Mixed methods
We also utilise a mixed methods approach (using a combination of research methodologies) that allow us to identify insights from the analysis of different data sets in parallel such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, diaries and cognitive debriefing alongside quantitative data such as surveys. We apply a proven ten-stage framework to apply a holistic analysis that provides you with a rounded view of what the qualitative and quantitative research evidence is saying.
Clinical trial exit interviews
Exit interviews can provide a rich source of information about the individual’s experience and evaluation of the medication, treatment, side-effects, functioning etc. The data collected is normally qualitative carried out at various time points as well as at the end of the treatment phase. When we have combination of data type we apply our ten-stage framework described above to carry out the analysis. Sample size is usually around 30 patients to increase the likelihood of identifying themes.
Cognitive interviewing (Cognitive debriefing)
Carrying out cognitive interviews is now an established approach in questionnaire design, clinical outcome assessment (COA) development and cross-cultural adaptation. However, selecting the most appropriate method requires an understanding of the benefits, costs and the context as to which model will be most useful as well as the critical issues in the analysis of cognitive interviews. See our blog post.
At Health Outcomes Insights we select the most appropriate method based on an assessment of the investigation’s requirements and the attributes of each model and analytical approach that ensures you get the most informative information.
Co-creation workshops
Our workshops are a creative form of collaborative creativity.’ It’s a rich mix drawing on a combination of knowledge, and group decision-making. It’s the process of involving the client/customer/patient in the creation of meaning and value. We have applied this technique in COA development as it brings patients and key stakeholders (e.g. researchers, clinicians, pharmaceutical advisors) together and who are tasked to collaboratively generate ideas, concepts through a range of stimulating activities.
We help you create more effective and realistic market forecasts
- If you already have had your market forecasting survey questionnaire developed and just want us to undertake an evaluation and identify, remove and rectify any poor question wording and other sources of survey bias we will apply QuestReview™ our evidenced-based questionnaire evaluation tool. We will carry out a comprehensive review of the questionnaire and provide you with detailed feedback and recommendations on how your questionnaire can be improved.
- If you are starting from scratch and want to work with us to develop a market forecasting survey questionnaire that will provide effective and realistic forecasts, we will apply QuestDevelop™ our evidence-based questionnaire design platform.
Questionnaire Design
Designing a new questionnaire, or modifying an existing one, should really be left to the expert. It takes time and a focused effort. It’s very easy to design a bad questionnaire, but very difficult to design a good questionnaire. Tell us what you need to measure and we will provide tailored solutions for your health research needs.
Story Telling
Ask most decision makers what they are looking for in insight reporting and they will tell you it’s a story. The reporting of research however, is normally presented in a building block structure, e.g. literature review, summary of the qualitative research findings, followed by the quantitative data, then with a leap to the conclusions to the study.
The challenges of delivering research findings are:
- Multiple and disparate stakeholders
- Lack of time
- Getting complicated data across in an engaging way
Storytelling has the power to capture an audience’s attention and engage them deeply and are much more likely than standard presentations to engage your audience as well as providing evidence in the way decision-makers think.
At Health Outcomes Insights we combine a five-stage data analytical framework with the three-components of good story telling to help you find and deliver the story in the data, enabling you to make effective decisions and take action.
The three-components of good story telling

Story Telling Using Data Visualisation
Visual storytelling can really help communicate complex information in an accessible and engaging way. Working with our designers we can advise you on how to tell the story.

Behavioural Economics
Understanding and Guiding Irrational Human Behaviours Using Behavioural Economics and Decision-Making Psychology BE Assessment
We are available to review marketing collateral and other communications to assess the strategic as well as accidental use of BE tactics that are influencing people’s (conscious as well as unconscious) thoughts and behaviours. This provides a great opportunity for a company to assess where they are in leveraging BE tactics, and explore more strategic use of BE.
Experience Sampling
Experience sampling (ES) – a research methodology that asks participants to stop at certain times and make notes of their experience in real time – is increasingly becoming an approach to overcome the potential biases in patient retrospective reporting of symptoms, behaviours and experiences.
Through our consulting service and providing you with tailored solutions for your health research needs, we will work with you to:
- Establish whether you require ES
- Select the appropriate platform (resource-intense computerised methods/paper and-pencil methods)
- Set study parameters
- Implement the study
- Collect and analyse data