Insight provides a full range of services in the management of health research projects.

The management of health research projects requires considerable skill. There are numerous reasons why the scope can evolve throughout a project including:

• Ethical and regulatory restrictions

• Feasibility of proposed research

• Availability of research participants and required research technology

• Issues faced in data collected

• The quality of data collected or collated

• Additional questions are raised as initial statistical findings come to light

There are numerous challenges to managing project scope, the quality of results, the timeline and the project cost. The Insight team has over 20 years’ experience in study design, data collection, and data analysis for clients. We work closely with clients to achieve optimal project outcomes despite the challenges that are present within any project.

Every project will be different (including different client needs, and different project deliverables), and a tailored project management plan is developed for each individual project.

A typical project management approach for a larger project goes through the following stages:

• Initial planning - For any project to be successful it needs to start with a thorough understanding of a client’s needs. These pertain both to the project execution and deliverables, and also to the manner in which the client seeks to work together with the Insight team throughout the project. In consultation with the client the Insight team will draft a Project Plan outlining the project team, scope, methodologies, deliverables, timeline, and manner of communication throughout the project. Insight will then seek approval for this Project Plan from the client.

• Study design – Each project will have its own scope and characteristics; the manner in which data is collected, collated or obtained for the project; the data analysis methodologies; reporting styles; and roles for stakeholders (including approval processes for project decisions). Study design often involves reviewing similar studies and relevant literature, and evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of proposed data collection instruments.

• Ethics reviews and regulatory approval – While all projects need to be conducted in an ethical manner, projects will also require different formal processes involving a review by an ethics board and/or regulatory bodies.

• Piloting of instruments – All projects are a balance between time, cost and quality. It is usually recommended that data collection instruments are piloted with a small number of members from the target population (when the time and cost allow this). Through this process weaknesses within these instruments and their use can be identified and addressed.

• Data collection – Again there is a balance between time, cost and quality where some data collection strategies are faster and cheaper, and other strategies produce higher quality data. Proper management will identify any problems that occur during data collection and will address these problems.

• Initial assessment of data quality – On first obtaining a dataset a number of data quality checks are made to assess whether the project can continue as planned, or whether changes need to be made to the project plan.

• Data preparation – It should never be under-estimated how much time is required for data preparation (with different references estimating that between 70% and 90% of the average data scientist’s time is spent in data preparation). This stage involves a range of tasks including change to file formats, data types, and integration between datasets.

• Further data quality checks – Data is again checked for data quality. This involves quality checks that were not possible using the initial data files, and also involves assessing the correctness of the data preparation work.

• Initial analysis – basic statistical methods and data visualization are used to gain an initial understanding of the patterns present within a dataset and the complexity of the data.

• Main analysis – advanced statistical methods are employed which are tailored to the specific research questions asked by a client and to the unique complexities of specific datasets.

• Initial proposal for reporting – every client will have their own unique needs for reporting including the presentation style, the focus in the communication, and the level of technical complexity in the report. Insight will often draft a small sample of the final report (possibly including a proposed table of contents and a sample of 10% of the final report) and seek feedback from the client.

• First draft of reports – a complete first draft of the report is written and feedback from the client is sought. In receiving this feedback it should also be noted that a client might not know or be able to verbalize all of their requirements until they review a first draft of a report.

• Final draft of reports – a complete final draft of the report is produced, along with a document outlining how the feedback previously given by the client has been addressed.

• Review session to review project successes and lessons learnt – Insight is passionate about continuous improvement, and believes that there are things that could be improved within any project. At the same time it is also important to also identify and celebrate the successes within the project, and to ensure that those wins are continued in future projects. Insight appreciates the opportunities to hold review sessions with clients at the end of a project, and we also have our own internal review sessions. These successes and lessons learnt are documented internally by Insight to help guide our future projects.

See details about our workshops in the design and management of clinical trials.

Insight is based at the Gold Coast Health and Knowledge Precinct. The Precinct contains Griffith University Gold Coast, the Gold Coast University Hospital, the Gold Coast Private Hospital, and the Cohort and Lumina tech parks. Insight provides research, consulting, training, and IT support services for clients across the Precinct and for the broader international community.