In this blog post we talk about how disseminating the ideas, progress, and findings of the Being Me with IBD study is something we’re thinking about all the time.
Disseminating as we go
Research is undertaken to find things out. However, although finding things out can be valuable it isn’t particularly helpful unless the researchers share what they have discovered as widely as possible.
For us, dissemination means that we are planning on sharing our findings in the usual ways such as writing papers for publication and speaking at conferences. However, we have already started to share aspects of the study with the wider public through our blogs, tweets, and through our contacts with local Crohn’s and Colitis UK support groups. We’re also going to be working with young people with IBD to identify the best ways of sharing the findings from the study with other young people.
What have we done so far and what are we planning?
- Getting animated. One of the first things we developed was a short animation about the study.
In less than three minutes the animation takes the viewer through the background to the study, the aims, methods for data collection, and analysis of the data, providing an overview of our social media presence.
- Blogging. This blog is just part of the way we are using social media to reach out to people well beyond those who we directly engage with in the day-to-day running of the study.
- Twitter. We’re also tweeting about things we think will be of interest to the IBD community. If you want to find us, we tweet using #BeingMeWithIBD.
- Workshops. Although these are a little way off, we’ll be running some workshops with young people to find out the best ways of sharing our findings and the best places to share them. If you have any ideas on ways or places we should be sharing our work then please let us know.
Thanks for your interest in our study
The Being Me with IBD Study Team