Helping Breast Cancer Care design a research brief

Breast Cancer Care is a UK wide charity that provides care, information and support to people affected by breast cancer.

Breast Cancer Care approached Pro Bono Economics as they wanted support from an economist to design a research brief. Part of the Department for Health’s strategy on cancer is to ensure cancer sufferers receive excellent care after they’ve beaten the illness. Breast Cancer Care wanted to commission a fast evaluation of their self-management service “Moving Forward,” a programme for people that have suffered from cancer and have now completed treatment, to assess whether their service is a cost-effective model for the NHS, but also to determine the benefits of the programme to patients and wider savings to society.

Sarah Breen, a health economist at Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals, assisted the “Moving Forward” team to write a research brief to put out to tender. She helped the charity be clear and concise when determining aims and objectives and advised on different types of economic analysis and what would be most useful for Breast Cancer Care. Sarah also assisted in reviewing and shortlisting five companies that applied to undertake the analysis, putting together a list of pros and cons for each company as well as helping Breast Cancer Care understand the economics terminology and evaluation approach of each.

We would like to thank Sarah for her advice and support to Breast Cancer Care during this project.