Institute of Health Research Seminar: Designing good process evaluations in the new era of complex interventions research

Speakers: Dr. Sarah Morgan-Trimmer and  Prof. Charles Abraham

Sarah Morgan-Trimmer is a new Research Fellow in Process Evaluation in the Psychology Applied to Health (PAtH) Group at UEMS. Her role is to develop process evaluations in new studies submitted to funders by UEMS and other health researchers at Exeter, and to develop research methods in this growing area.

Process evaluations are increasingly incorporated into RCTs of health behaviour change interventions and are part of the study design scrutinised by funders. The MRC has recently extended its guidelines on evaluating complex interventions by publishing new guidance on process evaluation. Designing a robust and useful process evaluation requires a good understanding of its basic components, key underlying principles, how to implement this type of evaluation within an RCT, and appropriate methods.