{"id":2744,"date":"2021-03-30T14:34:36","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T14:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/ighi\/?p=2744"},"modified":"2021-03-31T10:05:17","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T10:05:17","slug":"how-seldom-heard-groups-are-helping-us-shape-our-research-priorities-learnings-so-far-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.imperial.ac.uk\/ighi\/2021\/03\/30\/how-seldom-heard-groups-are-helping-us-shape-our-research-priorities-learnings-so-far-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How seldom heard groups are helping us shape our research priorities \u2013 learnings so far"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Person<\/p>\n

Last summer, the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College Health Partners and Imperial College London were successful in being named as one of the five Network Data Labs<\/a> (NDL) across the UK, funded by the Health Foundation.<\/p>\n

This is an extremely exciting opportunity for our partnership. We have the opportunity to work with our local community in North West London to identify research priorities for health and care since COVID-19, and translate those findings into practice \u2013 helping to reduce inequalities.<\/p>\n

In North West London we are also very fortunate to have access to a linked data set, known as Discover.<\/a> This provides information from primary care, acute, mental health, community and social care. It gives us the unique opportunity to delve deeper into health inequalities, and use data to try and discover how communities have been affected by the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Our first research project has been an analysis of people recommended to shield by the government, and how COVID-19 has affected them. North West London has a very diverse population in terms of income and ethnicity. We therefore wanted to be sure we were working with a range of patients and the public to help inform our research priorities. Two groups we worked closely with are the Imperial Research Partners group, a diverse group of 11 patients and carers, and also Community Voices, a group of community leaders linked to groups representing people from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, those who don\u2019t have English as a first language and a range of other seldom heard communities.<\/p>\n

Identifying priorities and concerns<\/h2>\n

Back in November around 50 people from Community Voices, 40% of whom were from a minority ethnic background and 40% who identified as having a disability, attended a design workshop to help consider two questions. 1) What changes have you noticed in the way that health and care are supported and delivered in North West London since COVID-19? And 2) In terms of the impact COVID-19 has on health and care in the UK, what are our local North West London community priorities for health and care? What are people most worried about and why?<\/p>\n

There were two key elements that helped to ensure the workshop could be as productive as possible:<\/p>\n