Blog Post – By Eugenie Evelynne Johnson
Evidence synthesis is a method of research that brings together and summarises existing knowledge on a specific topic. The method is often used in health and social care policy and practice. These reviews can be completed quickly, sometimes in just a couple of weeks, when timely insights are urgently needed.
At the NIHR Innovation Observatory, we understand how involving patients and the public significantly improves the relevance, credibility and impact of our research. We’re committed to ensuring that public voices are at the heart of the research we carry out – and we want to help others do the same.
Our goal? To make involving the public in rapid research not only feasible, but meaningful and effective – even when time is limited. That’s where RIPPLES comes in.
The Rapid Involvement of Patients and the PubLic in Evidence Synthesis (RIPPLES) framework was co-created in partnership with two members of our Public Advisory Group. We also gathered input from researchers, members of the public, and professionals with experience in public involvement through an online survey and two interactive workshops. These contributions shaped the framework to ensure it is practical, meaningful and tailored to the needs of those conducting rapid evidence reviews.
We were proud to officially launch RIPPLES during our webinar on Wednesday 26th March, where we introduced the framework and shared the development journey. The session was a great opportunity to connect with others passionate about improving public involvement in fast-paced research settings. We were joined by live scriber Nifty Fox who produced the impactful graphic below to capture the RIPPLES framework.
We hope RIPPLES will be taken up by researchers across the UK and beyond. At the Innovation Observatory, we’re already starting to embed the framework into our own processes and are working on developing a wider RIPPLES toolkit to provide even more practical support.
As with any framework, we know there’s always room to grow. We’ll continue to refine RIPPLES based on feedback from those who use it – so please stay connected and let us know how it works for you.
If you’re interested in using RIPPLES or contributing to its future development, we’d love to hear from you!
Get in touch at insights@io.nihr.ac.uk.
