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Blog
Why should you put research at the heart of your organisation?
Paul Henderson, Director of Consulting, UK&I Healthcare & Government, IQVIA
Apr 02, 2024

Having an effective Research Unit can enhance your reputation as a care organisation, help you attract and retain staff, generate funding, improve productivity, and create better clinical outcomes for patients. There are many researchers active in our care sector, doing amazing work. In this article Paul Henderson, Director of Consulting, UK&I Healthcare & Government, IQVIA, discusses how an effective Research Unit can enable us to gain more from their brilliant work.

“In a previous role as commissioner of Research and Development (R&D), working in the NHS, I learned first-hand of the fantastic capabilities we have in the UK. However, I was disappointed by the inability to land and scale the outputs of research quickly, the challenges accessing funding, the difficulty in recruiting staff to organisations who wanted to grow research capability – but were not “famous”, and the complexity in finding the right place for Research Strategy – within the overall shape and focus of NHS Trusts.

Successful organisations attracted the best staff, the most funding, delivered results and benefits to patients more quickly (where speed was a goal). There are many different types of research, some of our biomedical programmes for example, lasted for many years and required a deal of trust and investment over a long period of time, before they delivered world-leading innovation.

The research landscape is constantly evolving, but there are 5 key influences driving change. Many health organisations are trying to:

  • Manage the risk and capitalise on the opportunities to deliver an infrastructure that supports innovation.
  • Collaborate in the right way with the right people.
  • Walk in the shoes of those that use your services.
  • Make sure your practice is safe.
  • Apply the outputs of research more quickly.

Having a Research Unit is key to the effective management of risk and accessing the opportunity. You do not need to be an established research organisation to benefit from having a Research Unit. There is a maturity curve to shape your thinking about what your roadmap could look like. It broadly looks like the image below.

In my experience, very few organisations are at the bottom of this curve. However they are feeling the impact of not exhibiting the attributes of a high-performing organisation on a regular basis. You may be in the position where:

  1. You struggle for budget and do not win enough of the grants you seek.
  2. Your work is fragmented, tactical, and you are forever chasing your tail because you don’t have a clear strategy that everyone is signed up to.
  3. Capability comes and goes as people join and leave your organisation, so the stability of your work feels under constant threat.
  4. You have not networked enough with a wide range of partners to capitalise on all the opportunity.
  5. Staff have a heavy workload to fully embrace the research agenda.
  6. Internally, you struggle to justify the benefits of your work – even though you know that what you are doing is worthwhile.

There is a way through this. It is true to say that there are 5 clear areas of benefit from having an effective R&D Strategy, which is embodied in an effective Research Unit.

Five benefits of an effective R&D strategy

1. Finance

R&D can be a source of revenue.

2. Quality and Efficiency

Delivering innovation quickly improves outcomes and productivity.

3. Reputation

An effective research unit enhances the reputation of your organisation.

4. Staffing

A reputation for research and innovation helps recruit and retain staff.

5. Balance

R&D merits a central place in any organisational strategy.

Here at IQVIA, we have helped many organisations unlock these benefits. Our transformation teams understand how to help you crystalise your vision, forge effective relationships and manage change. Please contact us for more information: NHSSolutions@iqvia.com

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