Over the past 20 years, we’ve delivered all our healthcare research under the wider Acumen umbrella. From patient studies to work involving healthcare professionals and clinical environments, it’s been some of the most complex, sensitive and rewarding fieldwork we’ve supported.

What became increasingly clear is that healthcare isn’t just another sector sitting neatly alongside the rest. It operates differently to the consumer market. The regulatory landscape is tighter, the documentation requirements are more rigorous, and the conversations themselves often carry real emotional weight.

Rather than treating healthcare fieldwork as a bolt-on specialism, we decided it deserved its own focus.

That’s why we’ve launched Acumen Health.

Acumen Health is our dedicated arm built specifically for healthcare fieldwork, underpinned by compliance-led processes, in-house project delivery and teams who understand the nuance of working in clinical and regulated settings.

For us, this isn’t about creating something separate from who we are. It’s about refining and strengthening what we were already doing well. The principles of our fieldwork haven’t changed, meticulous recruitment, secure data practices and rigorous delivery have always been part of how we work. Acumen Health simply gives that expertise a clearer home.

At the same time, we’re conscious that healthcare research must never lose its human core. Behind every brief are patients, professionals and lived experiences that deserve respect. The operational side matters enormously, but so does tone, sensitivity and trust.

Acumen Health brings those elements together in one clear, intentional offer. It represents our continued investment in raising standards within healthcare fieldwork, and our commitment to delivering research that is rigorous, responsible and genuinely people-first.

We’re incredibly proud to see it formally launch and excited about what comes next.

You can visit Acumen Health by clicking here. 

The events of the past week can’t be understated. The news of the spread of Coronavirus to the UK and the World Health Organisation recognising it as a global pandemic has forced everyone around the world to reassess almost every aspect of their lives.

At Acumen we’ve had to enact a number of contingency policies to ensure the safety of our staff, clients and all of the supply partners and participants that we rely to conduct our research. We’re grateful that, for now, the impact has been minimal and inconvenient – in comparison to the differing scenarios unfolding globally.

In times like these many of us are reaching out for answers, advice and solutions. As people who work in market research we have a deep understanding of that drive. We also wanted to know, not just about the virus, but the every day impact that an event like this has on us – at a personal level and at a national level.

We decided to distribute a survey via our recruiting partners, Research Opinions, to try and get a better picture of the view from the UK. Here are some of their responses:

Some of the statistics were reflected in the verbatim responses we recorded:

I’m concerned that things are even worse than we are being told. That the government aren’t acting quickly enough and there will be many deaths.

The effect on the vulnerable and those who are self employed. I’m concerned as a health worker in a hospital too. Seeing empty supermarkets is something I never would’ve expected to see in my lifetime. 

 

There were almost equal levels of support and discord with the governments response to the outbreak:

I am less concerned today than I have been over the last 2 weeks. The government has finally taken this pandemic seriously but their measures are too little, too late and do not go far enough. 

Mixed information given and different countries adopting different strategies. 

The panic is more concerning. The measures being taken are limiting income. I feel there is more scaremongering than actual facts.

Everyone should have access to testing so they can self isolate even if they have no symptoms. At the moment even people with symptoms are not being tested and are just told to stay at home. 

 

I think a lot of this is hysteria but it’s hard not to feel concerned when you hear about it 24/7.

I’m sure if everyone is careful with hygiene and isolating if they are unwell, then the spreading of the virus will be limited. Unfortunately we live in a selfish, greedy world where people have never practiced good hygiene and aren’t going to start now. Or they’re going over the top with panic buying; leaving others in want. The virus itself isn’t the problem.

The outbreak of Coronavirus is a rapidly evolving situation which is presenting challenges for people at all levels of society. At Acumen we’ve been working hard to prepare for these and many other adverse situations that can arise and impact the work we do day to day.

Our first priority is always ensuring the safety of our team, the clients who work with us, our partners in the research supply chain and, of course, the public who participate in our many and varied research projects.

We have been listening to the advice provided by the UK Government, the NHS and the World Health Organisation and have responded with a number of measures to help us as the situation evolves.

In terms of our day to day operation it is still very much business as usual at the moment. We are still operating at normal capacity, quoting on projects, organising research, and delivering our usual high level of service every day. In the event that the spread of Coronavirus would impact our ability to work from our office then we have contingencies in place to allow any of our team to work remotely, ensuring there would be no disruption to our services.

We have also implemented a number of measures to the way we’re working in an effort to mitigate the risk posed by Coronavirus to our participants, clients and research partners.

All screening material now includes questions which encourage participants to self-isolate and contact the relevant health authorities if they have either personally visited or been in contact with someone who has visited any of the most severely affected countries in the last 14 days. This is irrespective of whether they are displaying symptoms or not.

For participants who are due to take part in research we have implemented an SMS system to request that; “Given the evolving COVID-19 situation we request that, prior to attending any research, you follow the public health advice relevant to any recent travel you may have completed or symptoms you are experiencing.”

Additionally, we are providing all participants, interviewers and researchers with information on how they can practise good hand hygiene and advising them on how to minimise contact through social distancing and avoiding physical contact.

We have also been in constant communication with the many venues, interviewers and other suppliers that we work with to deliver our research services to ensure that all our following the latest advice on the ways to mitigate the impact of Coronavirus on our industry. Further information can be found via the MRS website here.

The main focus of our business is to plan for all eventualities but if you have any questions about current or future research projects that you would like assistance with then please do not hesitate to get in touch.

The Acumen team are ready to help.

LAST UPDATED: 11/03/2020 – 16:00

 

We’re getting into the festive spirit in the Acumen office with a Christmas campaign that’s sure to get you in the mood in the run up to the big day.

With only 15 working days left until we wrap up for Christmas, we’ll be running a competition where you can win prizes which include the Amazon Echo Plus, a Jo Malone Cracker, 3 Months of Fresh Flowers delivered right to your desk and a Luxury Spa Day for Two!

All you need to do to win some of these fabulous prizes is go to our Team page each day and discover who has received a Christmas makeover. To reveal who it might be, simply click or hover over one of the team pictures to animate the GIF and, if you’ve found the right one, you should see one of the Acumen team with some eye-popping animation on their GIF.

To enter into our daily prize draw simply email the name of the person you think it is to enquiries@acumenfieldwork.com

Winners will be selected at random and notified by email.

Good Luck!

At Acumen we’ve always championed the importance of quality assured research services through our work within the industry. Whether that’s through Acumonitor, our bespoke tool for detecting fraudulent participants, or the rigorous standards of our ISO 20252 accreditation.

We’re thrilled to announce that our most recent ISO20252 audit can now be announced and, once again, we have passed with zero discrepancies – meaning that we are fully compliant with the industry standards for all methodologies of market research.

This year’s audit has been led by Liz Diez who took over the role of Head of Compliance & Business Development after working at Acumen as a senior project manager. With her keen eye for detail Liz has been ably leading our teams through the changes brought in by the implementation of the GDPR and ensuring this works to complement our existing ISO20252 accreditation.

With the news that we have passed once again without a single discrepancy we’ll be continuing in our work leading the way in the industry on high quality market research services.

To celebrate the International Day of the Girl we’re looking back over some of the important work done by members of our team when they volunteered in Sierra Leone as part of an initiative to help young women.

Earlier this year Lizzie Coultas, our Head of Healthcare Market Research, and Julie Fuller, our business founder, travelled to Sierra Leone to assist on a charitable project, organised by Teams4U. The objective of this initiative was to empower girls and young women by providing them with resources they need to succeed in life. This included basic items such as school resources, bras and sanitary products which, due to a lack of access, often prevent young women from staying in education.

The team were also involved with a local college, helping to refurbish classrooms to provide vocational training to young women and provide them with an income.

Hear about Lizzie’s experiences in the short video below

Beyond the voluntary work that Julie, Lizzie and the other volunteers did in Sierra Leone, we also raised funds of over £16,000 which went directly to the institutions we were working with in Sierra Leone. For this we would like to thank all of the generous donations we received, including The Research Club and all the individuals who helped with each of our fundraising activities.

International Day of the Girl is a United Nations initiative which seeks to highlight many of the unique challenges faced by girls and young women around the world. By working with Teams4U we have witnessed the reality of these struggles and welcome the broader awareness that today brings.

As a company working within the market research sector, we know how important it is to ask for feedback. That’s why we’ve decided to formalise our methods of measuring success and are offering all of our clients, partners and suppliers the opportunity to recognise a member of the Acumen team.

Our latest initiative allows you to share your feedback directly with us and highlight the work of individual team members in addition to the overall qualitative fieldwork, quantitative market research fieldwork and healthcare fieldwork  teams too. In order to start sharing your views you simple have follow the link that has been added to the email signatures of all our team members. This will then take you to a short 1 minute survey where you can give us an insight on what it was like working with Acumen.

The feedback we’ve received so far has been used to highlight the exemplary work of some of our team members as well as helping us to assess our services and look how we can continue to expand our range of services, adding greater value to your market research projects.

If you’d like to tell us what you think about Acumen or just share some feedback on some of the people you’ve been working alongside on your research projects, then simply follow the link at the bottom of one of our emails or access it here. We’d love to hear from you!