The Innovation Observatory is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and hosted by Newcastle University. Established in 2017, we bring together expertise in research, data science and health innovation to identify and assess emerging healthcare innovations, helping health and care organisations prepare for the future.
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Like all successful organisations the Innovation Observatory is built on the collective effort of a multidisciplinary team.
We help the health and care ecosystem anticipate and prepare for the future.
Our governance arrangements ensure that priorities, resources and delivery are aligned to the needs of the health and care system while maintaining appropriate assurance and public accountability.
The NIHR Innovation Observatory identifies emerging innovations across the global healthcare landscape and transforms them into trusted intelligence that helps organisations anticipate change, make informed decisions and prepare for the future.
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Identifying today's emerging innovations to prepare for tomorrow's healthcare challenges
Building a connected, scalable infrastructure for the next generation of healthcare horizon scanning
Our four horizon scanning programmes span from Priority, Reactive, Proactive, and Demand Signalling. Find out more about how they all work together.
We are committed to building capability across the health and care system by developing skills, supporting careers and creating opportunities to learn, collaborate and grow.
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We develop and share cutting edge methods in horizon scanning, building capacity in the system across the public, voluntary and industry sectors.
We invest in people and support them in realising their full potential. Through nurturing and encouraging career development, we grow future national and international leaders.
Connecting the wider community with opportunities to learn, collaborate and develop through fellowships, immersion events, placements and external programmes.
We provide a gateway to collaboration, intelligence, and growth opportunities in healthcare and life sciences.
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Connecting with stakeholders across health and care to share knowledge, build relationships and support the effective use of our work.
Embedding lived experience into our work to ensure our approaches and outputs reflect the needs of patients and the public.
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April 2024
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September 2023
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December 2022
Patient and public involvement is a highly valuable way of ensuring that health and social care research is relevant and meets the needs of those it will impact the most. Increasingly, researchers are asked to conduct rapid evidence syntheses – a type of fast research that draws together and summarises information on a research topic, in very short time frames, sometimes within a couple of weeks.
This is where RIPPLES comes in…
We created RIPPLES as a simple, practical framework and toolkit to help researchers carrying out rapid evidence synthesis to embed patient and public involvement in their work. Our resources contain guidance and useful tips on how to implement the framework, as well as a handy worksheet to help plan involvement within rapid evidence synthesis projects.
The guidance pack also contains links to useful resources that can be used alongside RIPPLES to help support researchers in undertaking patient and public involvement.
RIPPLES is free for anyone who wishes to use it!
When you request to download the framework and guidance, you are asked for some basic information to help us better understand who is using RIPPLES. We are also intending to evaluate RIPPLES to ensure it is fit for purpose and refined in future. If you are happy to be contacted to help evaluate RIPPLES in the future, you will also be given an opportunity to leave your name and contact details.
Download Resources
If you use RIPPLES in your work, you are welcomed to cite the framework as follows:
Johnson EE, Gill S, Still M, Trenchard D, Smith D, Harmston R, McDermott J, Pearson F. Rapid Involvement of Patients and the PubLIc in Evidence Synthesis (RIPPLES) [online]. NIHR Innovation Observatory. England, UK. Available at: https://io.nihr.ac.uk/engage/public-patient-involvement/ripples/ [Accessed DD MM YYYY].
Understanding the Scope, Intent and Extent of Published Conceptual Frameworks of Frameworks for Patient and Public Involvement in Health and Social Care Research: A Rapid Scoping Review
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Watch our introduction to RIPPLES webinar to find out more about how the resource was developed and how you can use it
If you have any questions about RIPPLES or have feedback you would like to share, feel free to contact us: insights@io.nihr.ac.uk