NEON (Nurture Early for Optimal Nutrition) is a participatory female health volunteer-led intervention to promote healthy nutrition in children of Bangladeshi origin in East London, who have a higher risk of diabetes, obesity and heart disease in later life than the average child in the UK.
Childhood nutrition can impact adult health status and the likelihood of chronic diseases such as diabetes as well as oral health complications – making it important to act early to prevent long term problems.
NEON used a proven model from South Asia where the introduction of female health workers into local women’s groups has significantly improved maternal and neonatal survival rates.
A new short film highlights the impact of the NEON approach in local communities, and the improvements it has made to nutrition and feeding practices.
Helen is a consultant in public health medicine and a health services researcher. She is a member of the CLAHRC research partnership team, and Deputy Director of the CLAHRC Academy. Her research uses qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate health care and public health services.
Elena is a Senior Health Economics. She holds a PhD in Economics and Management from Padua University, a Master degree in Economics and Management of Health Care Services from Ferrara University and a first degree in Economics from Padua University.
Prior to coming to UCL she was a Research Associate at the Imperial College Business School, working on the economic evaluation of the Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) for Northwest London.
She previously held a research post at the Department of Economics, Ferrara University, where she collaborated to a multi-year research project and undertook an economic evaluation of a Regional Colorectal Cancer Screening Program.
Helen is a consultant in public health medicine and a health services researcher. She is a member of the CLAHRC research partnership team, and Deputy Director of the CLAHRC Academy. Her research uses qualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate health care and public health services.
A new BMJ Quality and Safety editorial by Dr Roman Kislov, Senior Research Fellow at the Alliance Manchester Business School, has highlighted CLAHRC work as an example of successful engagement with management theory by researchers.
Dr Kislov’s research focus is the processes and practices of knowledge mobilisation, and his editorial highlights our recent paper on how different NHS Boards implement a quality improvement intervention – the QUASER guide.
He cites the paper as “an example of successfully deployed theoretically informative approach, highlighting some practical tips for researchers who aspire to move from merely applying theory towards entering into dialogue with it and, through doing so, refining its assumptions.”
Repeated calls have been made for the increased use of theory in designing and evaluating improvement and implementation interventions.1-4 The benefits are argued to include identifying contextual influences on quality improvement (QI), supporting the generalisability of findings and anticipating how future phenomena might unfold.2 5 Most importantly, the ability of
Background Healthcare systems worldwide are concerned with strengthening board-level governance of quality. We applied Lozeau, Langley and Denis’ typology (transformation, customisation, loose coupling and corruption) to describe and explain the organisational response to an improvement intervention in six hospital boards in England.
Healthcare systems around the world are becoming more concerned with strengthening board level governance of quality. In England, national healthcare regulators are developing approaches, resources and interventions aimed at supporting senior hospital leaders in their role in the governance of quality.
New CLAHRC research investigates the organisational response to an improvement intervention in six hospital boards across England. The research, published in a new BMJ paper and BITE-sized summary shows the results a 30-month period of fieldwork, involving interviewing NHS board members, observing board meetings and analysing relevant documentation.
The findings will be relevant to NHS Boards, the staff and clinicians they lead and all those in the NHS working to improve the quality and safety of care.
As well as researchers, the results will be of interest to policymakers, regulators, knowledge mobilisation organisations and thinkers on boards and leadership across all sectors.
Background Healthcare systems worldwide are concerned with strengthening board-level governance of quality. We applied Lozeau, Langley and Denis’ typology (transformation, customisation, loose coupling and corruption) to describe and explain the organisational response to an improvement intervention in six hospital boards in England.
Read a BMJ editorial highlighting the paper as “an example of an empirical study that successfully enters into dialogue with management theory”
Repeated calls have been made for the increased use of theory in designing and evaluating improvement and implementation interventions.1-4 The benefits are argued to include identifying contextual influences on quality improvement (QI), supporting the generalisability of findings and anticipating how future phenomena might unfold.2 5 Most importantly, the ability of
