Author Archives: nataliepickles

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Addition to Community & Health Research Team

Viet-Hai in his new role as Research Assistant

Viet-Hai Phung has just joined the School of Health & Social Care working with Professor Niro Siriwardena as a Research Assistant. Viet-Hai’s profile is as follows:-

My name is Viet-Hai Phung and I joined the School of Health and Social Care as a Research Assistant in September 2011. I am currently undertaking a systematic literature review as part of an NIHR programme for applied research entitled Prehospital Outcomes for Evidence Based Evaluation (PHOEBE) which is developing new ways of measuring the Impact of ambulance service care. In addition to this, I am currently involved in the editorial process for the journal, Quality in Primary Care.

My academic background is in politics and research methodology. In addition, I have nine years’ experience of working in applied research across a range of public policy areas, including social policy, community safety, higher education and housing. I have undertaken policy evaluations for the public and voluntary sector. Prior to joining the School of Health and Social Care, I worked as a Research Associate for six and a half years at the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University. I have a range of quantitative and qualitative research skills, as well as extensive experience of undertaking literature reviews and publishing for a range of audiences, including peer-reviewed journals and policy practitioners.

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Research Forum – 13th July 2011

Research forum 13th July 2011

At the recent research forum held on Wednesday 13th July there were three presentations which generated a lot of discussion.

Martha Vahl talked about an impact evaluation of the Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) which is a means to engage with local BME (black and minority ethnic) communities in Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire on dealing with mental health issues. The aims of the evaluation were to look at the success of WRAP, to engage communities, examine the impact on participants, their communities and the services and look at the future structure of support for implementation.

Jo Middlemass gave a presentation on the first phase of the ENACT project. The aims of the project are to identify the barriers and the facilitators for service users/patients accessing, using and adhering to computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (CCBTi) for insomnia.
Preliminary results in brief included:
Service users/patients with insomnia need to feel that the on-line ‘site’ or ‘access point’ is accredited in some way to a reputable organisation and that it is safe, secure and has a degree of ‘moderation’. Service users were also happy for their information to be fed back to GP or Health professional of their choice.
Health professionals felt their involvement in the CCBTi package depended on their being able to use it as an adjunct tor other treatment advice and that they had training, trust and enthusiasm in the package.

Janice Wiseman delivered a presentation about the Primary Care Research Network East Midlands South Yorkshire (PCRN-EMSY) on behalf of Nathalie Bailey-Flitter. She described how the PCRN comprises eight local research networks across the whole of England, each led by a clinical lead and Regional Network Manager. The coordinating centre is hosted by Leicester City PCT with three local hubs across the East Midlands and South Yorkshire region. Trent Hub now has eight team members. Their role is to:

 Coordinate patient recruitment
 Employ research development and support officers
 Ensure that Service Support Costs are secured and adequately costed
 Involve clinicians who may not have previously participated in clinical research
 Undertake a training needs analysis and providing free training (much of which is available online)
 Help to identify investigator sites
 Offer support to obtain local ethical approval, R&D approval and arrange costings and contracts
 Co-ordinate multi-centre sites
 Publicise ongoing studies
 Performance manage studies within local sites

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Society for Academic Primary Care Conference 2011

Between the 6th and 8th July Professor Niro Siriwardena and Fiona Togher attended the 40th annual scientific meeting of the Society for Academic Primary care. Two posters were presented during the poster sessions entitled “Effectiveness of an educational intervention for general practice teams to deliver problem focused therapy for insomnia: pilot cluster randomised trial” and “Effect of a quality improvement programme on leadership, innovation and use of quality improvement methods in general practice”. Both of these posters described and explained the findings of streams of work that had been encompassed within the Resources for Effective Sleep Treatment (REST) project.

Additionally Professor Siriwardena also gave an oral presentation of a study led by Zowie Davy entitled “Quantitative versus Qualitative notions of validity: investigating the validity of PSYCHLOPS as a patient outcome measure in trials of insomnia and sleep problems”. This presentation was very well received by the audience and generated a lot of interesting questions around the topic of outcome measures and validity testing.

The conference programme consisted of several parallel sessions during which presenters talked about the findings of their recently carried out research (at the pre-publication stage) and delegates could select which subjects they would find most interesting and informative to their own future research. The parallel session streams to choose from included; Research Methods, Musculoskeletal, Cardiovascular disease and Diabetes among many others.

Attendance at the conference was thoroughly enjoyable and was also a good opportunity to inform colleagues from other institutions about the Primary Care research that is being undertaken within the University of Lincoln.

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Research Café – Supporting Health Research Bids, 1.00pm, 22 June 2011

Lincoln School of Health and Social Care:  Community and Health Research Group

Research Café – Supporting Health Research Bids

22 June 2011, 1:00 to 2:00pm
Senior Common Room, 2nd Floor, Bridge House, Brayford Campus

This next Research Café will be an informal session, focussing on providing advice and guidance on writing health research bids. It is open to all and coffee/tea will be provided.

Dr Zowie Davy, Research Fellow, Health & Social Care will be presenting her ‘work in progress’ on a current research bid

Advice and guidance will also be available from:
• Jane Dyas, Senior Research Fellow, NIHR, East Midlands Research Design Service
• Raj Mehta, Medical Statistician, NIHR, East Midlands Research Design Service
• David Young, Senior Research Facilitator, University of Lincoln

If you are planning to attend, please register your attendance with
npickles@lincoln.ac.uk