Presenters: Michelle Peate and Melanie Ball
The Psycho-Oncology Co-operative Research Group (PoCoG) was established in 2005, in response to a recognised need to develop the capacity and co-ordinated collaboration to conduct large-scale, multi-centre psycho-oncology and supportive care research. PoCoG aims to improve outcomes for people affected by cancer by developing and facilitating high quality, collaborative and clinically relevant research that focuses on interventions and services to optimise psychosocial and supportive care. As part of this aim, PoCoG has developed Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) designed specifically for psycho-oncology research. The SOPs will help both new and experienced researchers to ensure their studies are conducted to the highest standards, ensuring efficiency, ethical compliance, and high quality data. The SOPs, templates and checklists, which include suggested solutions to common barriers and pitfalls researching in the real world context, currently available address: Study Management; Protocol Development; Study Documentation and Data Management; Statistical Analysis Plan Development; and Study Closeout.