Category: Projects

Becoming Research Active: 14th November 2018; 9am-5pm

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Are you a nurse, allied health professional, public health or local government member of staff who is interested in research or who has had some exposure to research?  Our workshop is suitable for staff from NHS Trusts, NHS CCGs, and Local Authorities who are keen to become involved in research.

Engaging in research is a great way to address the questions that often arise in health care.  It can also play a vital role in producing new evidence and new knowlegde for decision-making to improve health care.

This one day, practical workshop provides an introduction to the research process to enable NHS and local government staff to engage in research activity.  The course is run by the CLAHRC North Thames Academy, together with the Research Design Service London (east London arm) and Clinical Research Network North Thames.

This introductory level course is a first step on the journey towards becoming “research active”, either by developing your own small project or getting involved in other ways e.g. collaborating on research studies, assisting clients / patients in your care to take part in research, being a (critical) research ‘consumer’ or helping to shape research priorities, design and delivery.  We ask that participants attend the workshop with a research idea, innovation, or change that they would like to plan for, or collaborate on with researchers.

By the end of the course participants will:

  • Understand the research process, including the principles behind good research design and planning for dissemination and impact
  • Understand the different roles within a research team and identify the points at which you can become involved
  • Be able to apply criteria to judge the potential value and feasibility of a research project idea
  • Have a basic understanding of research governance and ethics requirements, and know where to find out more
  • Know how to involve patients and the public in every stage of research, and understand how it could benefit the research
  • Know how to access relevant resources or the help available across North Thames to design, plan and fund research

This workshop is not aimed at academics and/or researchers.

*e.g. you might have done a Masters level module in collecting and analysing data, or critical appraisal of research, or have helped to support research in your organisation or attended another one of our Academy courses.

All participants will receive a certificate of attendance.

Cost – This course is free for staff working in NIHR CLAHRC North Thames partner organisations (a list of our partners is available on our website). There is a delegate fee of £250 for other attendees.

Venue – Central London

Registration – Please complete the registration form and email to clahrc.academy@ucl.ac.uk by 5pm, Wednesday 5th September 2018.

Please note, a cancellation fee of £100 will be charged to both partner and non-partner delegates in the event of non-attendance without notic after 5pm on 7th November 2018. 

For more information please contact clahrc.academy@ucl.ac.uk


Success for CLAHRC researcher Meredith Hawking

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Congratulations were in order for CLAHRC researcher Meredith Hawking after her poster won a prize at the 2018 Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society for Academic Primary Care at the Barbican Centre, London.

Meredith with her winning poster

The prestigious SAPC event brings together researchers and educators from the primary care community in the UK and around the world to showcase their latest studies.

Meredith is based at Queen Mary University of London and her PhD focuses on Investigating patients’ perspectives and adherence to anticoagulants for atrial fibrillation.

Atrial fibrillation is a heart condition affecting a million people in the UK that causes an irregular and often abnormally fast heart rate. AF is associated with 1 in 8 strokes (1 in 3 over 80 years). More than half these strokes could be averted by oral anticoagulants (OAC), but the proportion of patients receiving oral anticoagulants has improved by only 1.5% per year over the last 25 years and was only 50% in 2012.

Meredith’s poster- entitled Adherence to direct oral anticoagulants for non-valvular atrial fibrillation in real world settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis – outlines her work to explore how widespread nonadherenece to anticoagulants is.

Introduction to Economic Evaluation – 31st October 2018

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Do you need to demonstrate the economic impact of projects in your organisations?

Do you want to assess the outcomes and sustainability of a new service?

Are you tasked with carrying out an economic evaluation, but don’t know where to start?

 

This one day, hands-on workshop aims to provide an introduction to addressing these challenges.  It is run buy the NIHR CLAHRC North Thames Academy.  The course is aimed at staff in frontline services in the NHS and local governement, who have limited experience of conducting economic evaluations and decision making analysis.

After attending this course, you will have the skills and knowledge to undertake your own simple economic evaluation of a local intervention or service, and be able to appraise other evaluations.

The course will cover:

  • introduce the basic principles of economic evaluation methods

  • explain how to assess the costs of an intervention/service

  • explain how to measure and value outcomes of an intervention/service

  • give practical examples of economic evaluation analysis

  • help to understand how to use economic evaluation in decision making

  • offer the opportunity to discuss in small groups the economic evaluation you are doing or thinking of doing.  A facilitator will help scope  your economic evaluation, draft its core elements, identify the data you will need to use, think how you could overcome information or data gaps

This worksop is suitable for staff from NHS Trusts, Local Authorities and CCGs who need to evaluate local programmes or service from an economic perspective as part of their work.  It is not aimed at academics and/or researchers.

In order to be most beneficial for the participants, we invite applications from individuals who are carrying out or soon will need to carry out an economic evaluation of a service/intervention.  In the selection process, we will give priority to applications providing a detailed description of such projects.  Groups of people working on the same project are encouraged to apply.

No previous knowledge of economics is required (or experience of study design and statistics), however an interest in economics and being comfortable with numbers is desirable.

All participants will receive a certificate of attendance.

Cost – This course if free for staff working in NIHR CLAHRC North Thames partner organisations (please click here to see a list of our partners).  There is a delegate fee of £250 for other attendees.

Registration – Please complete the registration form and email to clahrc.academy@ucl.ac.uk by 5pm, Friday 31st August 2018.

Please note, a cancellation fee of £100 will be charged to both partner and non-partner delegates in the event of non-attendance without notice after 5pm, Wednesday 24th October 2018.

For more information please contact clahrc.academy@ucl.ac.uk

 

Pulse checks in over 65s sees major improvements in the detection of atrial fibrillation

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New CLAHRC research highlights a simple intervention that could improve detection of atrial fibrillation (AF) – a potentially dangerous heart condition affecting a million people in the UK and associated with 1 in 8 strokes (1 in 3 strokes among those aged over 80 years).

East London GP and CLAHRC researcher Dr John Robson led an investigation into the impact of regular pulse checks in general practice on AF detection among patients aged 65 and over. This work, published in the British Journal of General Practice, offers evidence that these checks – a cheap and straightforward intervention – rapidly improved the detection and prevalence of AF, meaning quicker access to treatment and reduced risk of stoke for those diagnosed.

The condition causes an irregular and often abnormally fast heart rate and is a leading cause of stroke – with strokes caused by underlying AF twice as likely to be fatal. AF is common in older people, but often shows no symptoms – meaning earlier detection and access to treatment means reduced risk of stroke and the health problems stroke victims have to live with afterwards.

Dr Robson and his team checked historical GP records to investigate the impact of a programme promoting pulse regularity checks across three groups of East London GP practices (or Clinical Commissioning Groups) –  City and Hackney, Newham, and Tower Hamlets.

An analysis of electronic primary care patient records before (2007–2012) and after (2012–2017) checks were introduced showed significant increases in AF detection.

Br J Gen Pract. 2018 Jun;68(671):e388-e393. doi: 10.3399/bjgp18X696605
Opportunistic pulse checks in primary care to improve recognition of atrial fibrillation: a retrospective analysis of electronic patient records.
Cole J, Torabi P, Dostal I, Homer K, Robson J

Helping inspire the next generation of scientists

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What triggers asthma symptoms?

Can you identify celebrities who live with the condition?

How much lung capacity do you have?

These were just some of the questions we asked visitors to our stall at the 2018 Barts and Queen Mary Science Festival held at Queen Mary University of London’s Mile End campus on 20 June.

The CLAHRC was represented by the My Asthma in School project team at the event aimed at secondary schools and young people interested in a career in science and medicine.

We took the chance to give visitors information on symptoms and managing the condition in schools, and raising awareness among young people they can better understand and support fellow pupils with asthma.

They could also test their lung capacity and put their results on a peak flow rate chart to see how they rated against other young people (below). The team is looking for schools to take part in their work. Signing up your school is quick and easy and will help your school support & empower young people with asthma.

The Exhibitors at the festival provided hands on activities to encourage students to learn more about careers in science.

Now in its eighth year, the 2018 festival was supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) at Barts Health NHS Trust and Queen Mary University of London, and Trials Connect.

Thank you to the team and for the invite from Barts and QMUL.

Introduction to Demand, Capacity and Flow – 25th September 2018

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Does your organisation encounter problems with patient flow?

Are you interested in forecasting demand or capacity planning but don’t know where to start?

Do you want to learn some common pitfalls, principles and rules of thumb that might help you?

 

This one day, hands-on workshop is an introduction to demand, capacity and flow aimed at staff from NHS Trusts, CCGs and Local Authorities, and is run by the NIHR CLAHRC North Thames Academy.

After attending this workshop, you will have the skills and knowledge to apply simple principles and rules of thumb for managing demand and capacity in your local organisation or service.

The course covers:

  • Exploring what we mean by demand, capacity and flow
  • The role of variability in demand forecasting and capacity planning
  • How these concepts relate to flow within and between organisations
  • Common pitfalls including the role and limitations of using historical data
  • Some useful rules of thumb from ‘queueing theory’
  • Practical skills and tips for applying these concepts within your own organisations

This workshop is suitable for staff from NHS Trusts, Local Authorities and CCGs. It is not aimed at academics and/or researchers. No previous knowledge of demand, capacity or flow is required but basic Excel skills are essential.

Participants should attend the course with a service in mind in which they need to manage demand and capacity. You will need to bring a laptop/device with you to the course, on which you can access Microsoft Excel.

All participants will receive a certificate of attendance.

Cost – This course is free for staff working in NIHR CLAHRC North Thames partner organisations (please click here to see a list of our partners).  There is a delegate fee of £250 for other attendees.

Registration – Please complete the registration form and email it to clahrc.academy@ucl.ac.uk by 5pm, Friday 3rd August 2018.

Please note, a cancellation fee of £100 will be charged to both partner and non-partner delegates in the event of non-attendance without notice after 5pm, Tuesday 18th September 2018.

For more information, and to be added to our mailing list, please contact clahrc.academy@ucl.ac.uk