What is the Care Quality Commission? March 12, 2019 The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. They work with hospitals, GP surgeries, dental practices, care homes and other health services to ensure they provide safe, effective, compassionate and high-quality patient care – whilst at the same time encouraging care services to improve. As well as registering care providers, the CQC also monitors, inspects and rates services, takes action to protect people who use care services and publishes its view on quality issues in health and social care. written by GKA Read more
Recruiting hard-to-reach respondents: six steps to success February 28, 2019 The quality of your participants is paramount to the success of your study. Good participants can be the difference between insightful, in-depth results that fulfil your objectives and fieldwork that just falls a bit flat. Let’s face it – it’s tricky to find terrific respondents these days, even when you’re working with the most generic of target audiences. But add low incidence rate diseases and HCPs who specialise in rare therapy areas into the mix and you’ve got even more work to do. Don’t worry though – it can be done! Here’s our six-step guide on how to recruit hard-to-reach participants so your medical fieldwork recruitment goes smoothly, no matter how strict your criteria. written by GKA Read more
How the NHS budget has changed February 18, 2019 When the NHS first began back in 1948, it had a budget of £427 million – which, allowing for inflation, is equal to around £15 billion today. However, in the last few decades, this budget has spiralled to around £124 billion. And whilst funding continues to grow, the NHS never seems to have enough funding to cover its huge growth in costs since its inception 70 years ago. written by GKA Read more
Who’s who in oncology? February 12, 2019 Medical oncologists are doctors who diagnose, assess, treat and manage patients with cancer. In the UK, the four most common types of cancer are breast, lung, prostate and bowel – but there are actually more than 200 different types of cancer, which can make it difficult to recruit the right participants for your healthcare fieldwork research. written by GKA Read more
From the patient’s perspective; Haemophilia February 12, 2019 There are an estimated 400,000 people worldwide living with haemophilia, with approximately 6,000 sufferers in the UK alone. Haemophilia is an inherited disorder that affects the body’s ability to clot. Usually, when someone cuts themselves, clotting factors and platelets combine to make the blood stickier and stop the bleeding. However, in haemophiliacs, the bleeding episodes last longer due to abnormal clotting, and bruising and spontaneous bleeding can also occur too. The main problem for haemophiliacs is internal bleeding into joints, muscles and soft tissues, which can cause pain and stiffness and ultimately lead to joint damage. To better our understanding of the patient’s perspective when it comes to market research studies, we spoke to someone who recently took part in haemophilia research with GKA. written by GKA Read more
Who’s who in Breast Cancer February 6, 2019 The lowdown Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK, with one person diagnosed every 10 minutes. Cancer Research UK predicts that one in eight women in the UK will develop breast cancer within their lifetimes, an increase of 50% over the last 25 years – making breast cancer market research a fast-growing fieldwork area. There are around 55,000 new cases of breast cancer reported in women in the UK every year, and although it’s much less common in men, there are still 390 male cases reported each year. written by GKA Read more