A team from CaHRU including Prof Niro Siriwardena, Fiona Togher and Viet-Hai Phung were represented at the EMS999 Research Forum Conference on Quality Improvement and Innovation Research in Prehospital Care in Nottingham on 4th February 2015. The conference, supported by the Health Foundation through their Spreading Improvement Programme, brought together the latest research and best practice in prehospital care. The conference featured several posters from ambulance services in England participating in the IMPACT-ASCQI project led by CaHRU.
Professor Siriwardena kicked off the Conference with a keynote lecture on the evolution of quality improvement in prehospital care, ‘Prehospital quality improvement; past, present and future‘ which, innovatively, used some familial anecdotes to illustrate the links between principles of quality improvement and lessons for life!
Following the keynote was Richard Pilbery from Yorkshire Ambulance Service to talk about his experiences of speaking at the Paramedics Australasia Conference on the Australian Gold Coast. This was the prize that Richard won at last year’s EMS 999 Research Forum for producing the best poster. Following the first session, Matthew Booker from the University of Bristol presented his work on why ambulances are called for primary care problems followed by Mohammed Iqbal from EMAS on development of a novel pain assessment tool for improving prehospital pain management. Both presentations generated much interest, with Matthew winning the prize for best presentation at the end of the day.
Just before lunch, Fiona Togher presented her poster, which showcased her doctoral study on development of patient-related experience measures for the ambulance service. The presentation was both well-delivered and well-received, with some thoughtful questions from the audience in response. In the afternoon, there was a workshop presented by Niro Siriwardena with Janette Turner from ScHARR on ‘Disseminating and Publishing Improvement Research’. This workshop was useful for all those with an interest in publishing articles, dealing with a number of themes including how to structure an article to which journals it should be pitched at.
The range and content of the posters and presentations demonstrated the continuing importance of the EMS 999 Research Forum for anyone with an interest in undertaking research in prehospital care.
Viet-Hai Phung