CaHRU, in conjunction with NHS partners including East Midlands Ambulance Service and Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trusts, held its latest Research Forum of 2016 on 16th November. The forum followed its usual two-hour format with three speakers giving detailed presentations about a study they have been working on and then responding to questions.
The first presentation was from Dr Murray Smith, CaHRU’s health economist and econometrician, who talked about ‘An Economic Feasibility Study on the Fluoridation of Drinking Water in the East Midlands’. This study is being led by NHS Nottingham City on behalf of all nine primary care trusts in the East Midlands. It examined the cost of setting up fluoridation plants, where they would be and the cost of ongoing maintenance. Ultimately, the feasibility study will produce a report for each of the areas covered by the nine participating primary care trusts.
Next was Professor Niro Siriwardena who presented on behalf of Dr Zahid Asghar on their study examining the performance of candidates with dyslexia in the Applied Knowledge Test (ATK) for Membership of the Royal College of 
General Practitioners (RCGP). A key finding of the study was that there was no evidence of differential attainment in candidates declaring dyslexia compared with those who did not once other candidate attributes such as age, gender, ethnicity and country of primary medical qualification had been accounted for.
Dr Stephanie Armstrong concluded the Research Forum by presenting findings from the Network exploring the Ethics of Ambulance Trials (NEAT) study. This is a Wellcome funded study led by the University of Lincoln and involving a number of other UK, as well as Dutch and Swiss, universities. The study has been running for less than a year but has already achieved an impressive set of outcomes. These include: a systematic review of published randomised controlled trials; a review of global and national regulations; and preliminary results of interviews with expert informants, paramedics and patients who have been involved in ambulance trials.
By Viet-Hai Phung