卫生政策

Communications play a central role in health policy, helping to create a vision for the future and informing policy change to achieve defined healthcare goals at the local, regional and global level. At Costello Medical, our health policy team provides end-to-end support across a diverse range of project types to raise awareness, address unmet needs and improve patient care. We combine our scientific expertise, multidisciplinary approach, and experience of multistakeholder engagement to produce impactful, evidence-based deliverables.

Our dedicated team have experience in the delivery of:

White Papers, Position Papers and Policy Briefs

To raise awareness, educate and encourage collaboration regarding a specific healthcare issue, presenting an evidence-based framework of practical solutions for healthcare professionals and policymakers

Expert Consensus Articles and Delphi Panels

Working with leading experts to gather opinion and reach consensus on unmet medical needs, with an aim to promote best practice and improve patient care

Policy Roundtables and Meeting Reports

Organising, facilitating and capturing multistakeholder discussions on key healthcare topics, with a focus on identifying current challenges and opportunities, and developing actionable policy recommendations

Service Evaluations and Options Appraisals

Collecting and analysing data to evaluate healthcare service delivery, and assess the impact of policy change, to facilitate evidence-based decision making

Strategic Planning and Advocacy Support

Identifying strategic goals and objectives, developing bespoke communication action plans, and designing visually impactful materials to engage key stakeholders

What sets our health policy team apart?

Commitment to the delivery of high-quality work and excellent customer service
End-to-end support from a single, multidisciplinary project team
Strong scientific understanding and technical skills, including quantitative and qualitative evidence generation and analysis
Expertise in multistakeholder engagement, including virtual and face-to-face events
Strategic guidance to achieve project goals and maximise the impact of deliverables

Case Studies

Peer-Reviewed Policy Paper, Policy Report and Policy Infographic

Costello Medical was approached by a pharmaceutical company to independently manage the development of a peer-reviewed policy paper highlighting critical gaps in care for those living with a rare disease, and providing recommendations for improvement.

We organised and facilitated a half-day, virtual multistakeholder meeting to gather international expert opinion and real-world experience on key challenges and unmet needs for those living with the rare disease. Attendees included leading clinical experts and researchers, patient association and advocacy group representatives, carers and a patient.
In advance of the meeting, we developed a project charter outlining roles and responsibilities for all stakeholders and identified and briefed an independent rare diseases expert to chair the meeting, with support from Costello Medical.
During the meeting, we worked closely with attendees to gather insights, and to identify key challenges and opportunities for improving the care of individuals living with the condition.
Outcomes were used to develop a full draft of a policy paper which went through multiple rounds of author review; the final draft (approved by all authors) was submitted to the first choice target journal and accepted for publication without revision.

We also developed additional materials to maximise impact of the policy paper once published, including:

A visually impactful 20-page policy report highlighting key challenges, opportunities and recommendations from the policy paper and targeted at policymakers, policy ‘influencers’ and advocacy groups.
A summary infographic, developed in collaboration with our in-house Design team, as part of a rare disease toolkit.

Cross-Sector Policy Report

Costello Medical provided pro bono support to the Cambridge Rare Disease Network.

We attended their RAREsummit 2019 event and developed a report summarising the outcomes from a series of cross-sector discussions, to identify priorities for improving the lives of those impacted by rare diseases.
Working collaboratively with our Rare Disease division and in-house Design team, we developed a 20-page report summarising priorities across 5 key themes. The report included an executive summary, overview of topics discussed, methodology used to reach consensus on the priorities, and details of the overall top priority as voted by meeting attendees.
The final report was shared with the UK Department of Health and Social Care as part of a national conversation on rare diseases, to gather opinions for the new UK Rare Diseases Framework that was published in January 2021.

“This is really fabulous! So well presented, succinct and visually impactful. Thank you so much for all of the hard work that has gone into its creation. We are hugely grateful and proud of the outcome.”

Managing Director, Cambridge Rare Disease Network

Delphi Panel Expert Consensus

Costello Medical was approached by a MedTech company to gather expert consensus on the use of a surgical device in terms of patient selection and care management decisions.

We proposed the use of a modified Delphi panel approach to gather expert consensus, using our bespoke in-house Delphi app to run and analyse multiple rounds of Delphi panel survey in one place.
At project initiation we identified a small steering committee (SC) to support with each round of statement development and invited a wider group of experts to participate as panellists. In parallel, we conducted a targeted literature review (TLR) to collate published information on use of the device. Results of the TLR were discussed with the SC and used to inform statement development for Round 1 of the Delphi panel.
A total of three rounds of Delphi survey were conducted, in line with a pre-agreed Delphi panel protocol, with the results from each round being analysed and used to inform statements for subsequent rounds. Final results were discussed with all participants during a virtual meeting to align on key messaging for a consensus manuscript.
A consensus manuscript summarising the methodology and results from the Delphi panel was developed in close collaboration with all authors, and published in the first choice target journal within a year of project kick-off. We also provided support for the development of a congress abstract, poster and symposium presentation reporting key findings from the Delphi panel.