I’m Ryan Buchanan, a specialist registrar doctor in liver disease and a PhD student. My research is paid for by something called the National Institute for Health Research (it’s the research arm of the NHS and here in our region I work for the bit of it called CLAHRC Wessex).
Just over a year ago I wrote an article describing how I was part of a project to improve the care for patients living with Hepatitis C on the Isle of Wight.
Previously I have written about using a detailed computer model to ask ‘what-if’ an emergency department could be run differently. Hidden away in complex models like these are important rules of thumb that tell us how to efficiently manage patient flow.
My colleagues and I recently published a paper which describes how we created a model to show how people with diabetes become less dependent on primary care and more able self-managers.
We used maps created by general practice staff to show how their patients progress through the system following diagnosis.
In the current system, once treatment has been decided on, the frequency of appointments decreases and people are expected to self-manage with support from regular review appointments. Seeing the model and talking it through with GPs and others helped us to consider some of the shortfalls in the system.
Professor Anne Rogers is Professor of Health Systems Implementation in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southampton and Research Director of the NIHR CLAHRC Wessex
Professor Anne Rogers explains how weaker social ties play a role in helping people manage a long term illness.
With ever more attention on the NHS and how many nurses and doctors are needed to give people the best care, one part of the health equation is going unnoticed – What attention is being paid to the role of the patient and their extended network of relationships? In early 70s West Coast America a piece of research by Anselm Strauss and colleagues examined a set of questions on ‘self-care’.
Dr Tom Monks puzzles the opportunities and pitfalls of modelling large parts of the health care system and how this might help patients waiting to leave hospital.
I work as a modeller for CLAHRC Wessex. In part that means I spend a lot of time speaking to health care professionals and commissioners about their priorities and teasing out if modelling could help. More and more often I am asked “can we model the whole health care system?”.
Spring. The headlines about A&E overcrowding are beginning to disappear just as a fresh wave of news reports burst forth with the NHS priorities for the next government.We now have the luxury of a brief respite to reflect on how we can improve the lot of our hospital A&E’s before the seasonal cycle repeats itself. I have spent my winter looking at A&E data examining the question – could the answer to A&E attendance lie in providing GP appointments for urgent – but non-emergency – care at the weekend?
Professor Alison Richardson is Clinical Professor of Cancer Nursing and End of Life Care at the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust
Many patients whose condition becomes worse during their stay in hospital face uncertainty about the likelihood of recovery. For patients, families and healthcare professionals deciding on the best thing to do can be hard.
By Claire Ballinger and Mark Stafford-Watson – Chairs, Wessex Inclusion in Service Design and Delivery (WISeRD) group
It’s the end of our first year in CLAHRC Wessex, we have been thinking about our progress in involving patients and the public in our work (or PPI as it’s called), and reviewing where our focus should be for the coming year. We have settled on five strategic aims:
Develop our capacity for patient and public involvement (PPI) in research and implementation programmes
Promote our CLAHRC Wessex activities to the wider public (public engagement)
Evolve and measure ways to include patients and the public to identify research priorities
Develop a group of patient and public researchers
Measure the impact of patient and public involvement within CLAHRC Wessex
Dr Helen Roberts is Associate Professor in Geriatric Medicine and Theme 2 lead for Improving Routine Care for Ageing and Dementia for NIHR CLAHRC Wessex
Poor nutrition in hospital inpatients is a problem that is becoming increasingly recognised both in the UK and worldwide, and requires a multifaceted approach, including protected meal times, red trays and protein and energy supplementation as required. One factor that particularly affects older inpatients is the amount of assistance they receive at mealtimes. Time-pressured nursing staff may not have the time they need to help patients with their meals.
In the many discussions I’ve had people about our newly established and growing CLAHRC programme of research and implementation, it often centres on the question of what is Applied Health Research? Is it different from more conventional bio-medical research? It made me think that we need to be a bit more explicit about this thing called Applied Research. So here goes.
This site promotes independent research by the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) Funding Scheme. The views expressed in this blog are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the National Institute for Health Research or the Department of Health
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