Guidance on how to develop complex interventions to improve health and healthcare

By Professor Alicia O'Cathain, University of Sheffield

Developing new interventions is important within palliative care and rehabilitation.

MRC-funded guidance on developing new interventions to improve health and healthcare has been published recently. This guidance was based on a review of approaches to intervention development, a review of current practice, interviews with stakeholders, and a consensus exercise.

The key principles and actions for consideration when developing interventions will be discussed, including seeing intervention development as a dynamic iterative process, involving stakeholders, drawing on existing theories and paying attention to future implementation in the real world.

About the speaker

Alicia O’Cathain is Professor of Health Services Research at the Medical Care Research Unit, School of Health & Related Research, University of Sheffield.

She leads research in developing and evaluating complex interventions for chronic conditions, and evaluating new health services. She has written extensively on mixed methods research, recently focusing on how best to use qualitative research with randomised controlled trials. She has recently led and completed a methodological study of intervention development.

About the seminar series

The Cicely Saunders Institute Open Seminar Series events are free to attend and there is no need to register.

This seminar is worth CPD (1 credit) pending from the Royal College of Physicians. 

The series aim is to optimise opportunities for local, national and international networking within palliative care and rehabilitation. We facilitate seminars to assist in improving practice, education and policy, and the integration of research and clinical endeavours.