Department Name:
MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing at UCL
Department of Population Science & Experimental Medicine
Institute of Cardiovascular Science
Faculty of Pop Health Sciences
Supervisors names and email addresses:
Dr Daniel Davis: daniel.davis@ucl.ac.uk
Deadline: 29/05/2019
Interviews: 12/06/2019
Start date: 01/10/2019
Project Title:
Evaluating services for older adults with multimorbidity across health and social care
Project Description:
Health for older people exists on a wide continuum of functional states, from active and independent to frail and in institutional care. Understanding the determinants and implications of this huge (and widening) health inequality in older people is a major public health challenge.
The Delirium and Population Health Informatics Cohort (DELPHIC) prospectively follows up a sample age ≥70 in Camden across primary, secondary, community mental health and social care. This measures the total health and social care use within a single health economy. As such, DELPHIC offers the opportunity to evaluate health services in an integrated way. Quantifying the economic impact of longitudinal changes in health states – particularly before and after hospital admission – would provide novel insights into effective health services for older people.
This project seeks to evaluate existing service models for older patients (e.g. integrated care, reablement, hospital at home) across diverse settings (rural/urban) for a range of outcomes (e.g. hospitalisation, functional decline, social care use). We will adopt comparable approaches using realist evaluation incorporating some qualitative but mainly quantitative data leading to an economic evaluation as part of this PhD.
Data collection for DELPHIC started in 2017 – there would be ongoing opportunities for students to get involved with the primary evaluation of DELPHIC participants (training for patient contact would be provided). Students would also be encouraged to collaborate with NIHR CLAHRC Yorkshire and Humber on related projects (e.g. CARE 75+).
The major contribution to knowledge from this project will be through undertaking health services evaluation in a uniquely integrated dataset that DELPHIC offers in the same individuals across primary, secondary, mental health and social care.
All candidates should hold a Master’s qualification (or complete their Master’s by September 2019) in an appropriate discipline and have a minimum of a 2:1 or equivalent in their first degree. Applicants should preferably have knowledge of the UK health and care system. All applicants are required to have excellent written and verbal communication skills. They should also be willing to work collaboratively in multi-disciplinary and multi-professional teams.
Project-specific skills and experience required
Desirable:
Interest in cohort epidemiology, ageing, multimorbidity, quantitative data management (e.g. with Stata), health services evaluation, health economics evaluation.
CLAHRC Research area: Multimorbidity
Funding Notes:
Start date: 01/10/19
Duration: 3 years, full time
Stipend: £17,803
Institution: UCL
Enquiries email name and address:
For general enquiries, please email: clahrc.academy@ucl.ac.uk
For project specific queries, please contact: Dr Daniel Davis: daniel.davis@ucl.ac.uk
