Category: Projects
Changing behaviour to improve adherence to asthma medication
CLAHRC behaviour change researchers and PhDs Caroline Katzer and Marissa Mes were a big hit at the recent in ESPACOMP conference in Budapest Hungary. Caroline and Marissa presented to an audience of clinicians and allied health professionals interested in adherence
ESPACOMP (European Society for Patient Adherence, COMpliance and Persistence) promotes science concerned with the assessment of what patients do with medicines they have been prescribed – and the implications when they adhere, or don’t adhere to them. Their 2017 conference brought together behaviour change practitioners and researchers from across the world and both Marissa and Caroline’s presentation generated much interest and a host of questions from the audience.
Both Caroline and Marissa are conducting their PhDs as as part of our wider work examining the effectiveness of the ‘Perceptions and Practicalities Intervention’ (PAPI) in improving adherence to asthma medication.
Marissa (above) is investigating the effectiveness of pharmacists as the delivery channel of a theory-based intervention to support medication adherence in adults with asthma.
Caroline is focusing her PhD on developing the PAPI intervention to support adherence to maintenance treatment in adult asthma patients.
Both fielded questions from pharmacists interested in how their research/academic findings were going to be translated into pharmacy practice, and how feasible this would be.
Evidence in public health decision-making – its creators and users need to come together
Decision-makers in public health can be confronted with a huge volume of data, evidence, reviews and summaries – from local and national sources. There is also an acknowledged gap between evidence and policy in public health.
In a recent blog on the EPPI centre website CLAHRC researchers Dylan Kneale and Antonio Rojas-García reflect on their work exploring the use of evidence in local public health decision-making – and raise the question – How much research is being wasted because it is not generalisable in local settings?
While reduced resources make judicious use of evidence more important than ever when deciding how and where to apply resources, researchers also need to understand, and better communicate, the generalisability of their research evidence to decision-makers working locally.
Read Evidence use in public health – make-do and mend?
Better data to improve health and wellbeing
We have been reaching out to colleagues in local authorities and public health departments to highlight the value of research evidence in improving health and well being among local populations. The CLAHRC is forging useful links with our partners in local councils, bridging the gap between research and the front line.
Local authorities are a key audience for the CLAHRC as they are responsible for public health in their area. Public health includes prevention of illness and disease, sexual health and smoking cessation.
CLAHRC partners Islington and Camden Councils run lunchtime learning sessions for staff as part of their Using Data Better initiative. They invite speakers from various sectors to present the potential for data to improve health and health services for local residents. The boroughs have joined forces to deliver public health, and have a team of data analysts at work – identifying issues that have a negative effect on people’s health, and planning to deal with those issues.
In October Dr Chiara De Poli (below left) presented to public health staff and analysts in the two Councils. Chiara was joined by the CLAHRC’s Professor Gwyn Bevan and health economist Dr Elena Pizzo, presenting evidence of the limited impact of current policy options on the projected diabetes ‘epidemic’ in Islington, which stimulated a lively discussion about what Islington might do to tackle this.
Chiara’s work is part of a wider CLAHRC study, led by Professor Bevan, investigating the design of research and decision support processes to ensure the utility of research outputs. We are making efforts to make our research more “user friendly” and accessible to colleagues in the NHS and local government so they can use it in decision-making around planning and commissioning services and interventions for the populations they serve.
There was learning on both sides – our researchers got an insight into the challenges faced by staff on the front line and an appreciation of the type of data local authorities collect and analyse to improve health and well-being. We offered projections on the likely impact on diabetes prevention of current policies adopted by local authorities.
Feedback from our audience was extremely positive and we hope this is the start of a fruitful collaboration between the CLAHRC and the Public health teams within Islington and Camden.
“Once again, thanks for delivering a wonderful presentation – many of us were fascinated by your progress, and it’s no surprise that our head of dept. is now keen to collaborate further”
Mustafa Kamara, Intelligence & Information Analyst, Camden and Islington Public Health
The role of board-level clinical leaders in quality improvement
CLAHRC researcher Dr Lorelei Jones has been invited to deliver a seminar on the role of clinical leaders on NHS boards in quality improvement (QI).
The Health Services Research Centre is a leading authority on health care management and has invited Lorelei as part of their prestigious events series.
The poster below gives an overview of what she will be covering.
Dr Jones is part of our iQUASER study looking at how NHS boards implement QUASER – a dialogical tool for senior hospital leaders to develop and implement QI strategies across their organisation.
Lorelei will be presenting some results from her extensive fieldwork among NHS boards for this research, which involved interviewing board members, observing meetings and scrutinising papers and documents.
An Evaluation of Haringey Co-located Welfare Advice Services in General Practice Settings – Report
Prof Angela Harden
Angela Harden is a Professor of Community and Family Health. She is a social scientist with expertise in public health and evidence-informed policy and practice. She has conducted extensive research into the health of young people and the communities in which they live. Key themes in her research include sexual and reproductive health, mental health, health inequalities, the wider determinants of health and the evaluation of complex interventions. Angela has a keen interest in research synthesis, transfer and exchange. She is widely known for her methodological work integrating qualitative research into systematic reviews. Motivated by a desire to learn from the views and experiences of those targeted by public health interventions, this work has received international acclaim.
Before joining UEL Angela held research and teaching positions in a number of universities including the Institute of Education at the University of London, Kings College, and Middlesex University. In 2003 she was awarded a four year senior research fellowship by the Department of Health on the promotion of young people’s health. Her most recent post was as Associate Director of the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre at the Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education. Here she ran a number of large research projects as well as contributing to the design and delivery of a new MSc in Evidence Informed Policy and Practice. Between 2005 and 2008 she co-directed the Methods for Research Synthesis Node of the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods. Internationally, Angela is an active contributor to the Cochrane and Campbell collaborations. She is a co-convenor of the Cochrane Qualitative Methods Research Group and was a co-director of the Cochrane Health Promotion and Public Health Field until it became the Cochrane Public Health Review Group in 2008. She now serves on the methodological advisory board for this new research group.
As a newly appointed Professor of Community and Family Health, Angela’s remit is to develop a programme of research linked to improving the health of Newham. Working closely with colleagues in UEL, Newham University Hospital Trust and relevant external partners, she will focus on research with local relevance for improving health and reducing inequalities. Please click here for more details on this research programme.
Impact of co-located welfare advice in healthcare settings: prospective quasi-experimental controlled study
Funding success to develop research on vitamin B12 trial for pregnant women in India
Professor Monica Lakhanpaul, Principal Investigator on our NEON study has successfully applied for funding to develop a major research programme addressing the needs of women and children in India.
Professor Lakhanpaul (pictured below) is leading an application in respond to a call supported by a number of organisations from the UK and India (see below) under the title Global Research Programme; addressing the health needs of women and children in disadvantaged populations globally
The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) in India, in collaboration with Department of International Development(DFID), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC) joint call to fund global health research addressing the health needs of women and children
Successful applicants will build partnerships across the UK and India to execute research that will impact the ability to prevent, diagnose and manage prevalent chronic and infectious diseases facing women and their unborn children in low-and middle-income (LMIC).
By successfully navigating the initial round of the application process (“the concept proposal”) Professor Lakhanpaul has secured a £4000 travel grant to support the development of a partnership for the full proposal development process. Her initial concept proposal was for a vitamin on vitamin B12 trial in pregnant women and children in India.
A full proposal will be made in September for the larger pot of funding.
Monica’s work with the Bangladeshi community in East London is also referenced in a recent blog Can women talking save lives? Reducing inequalities in newborn mortality in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Malawi
