Author Archives: Niroshan Siriwardena

Posted on by

PINCER project showcased at Health Foundation Scaling up Improvement event

PINCER_HFmidtermeventMembers of the Scaling up PINCER project team (PINCER is a pharmacist-led information technology intervention for reducing clinically important errors in medication management in general practice), Prof Niro Siriwardena, Janice Wiseman, Dr Sarah Rodgers, Chris Rye and Despina Laparidou, recently attended (on June 29th) the Scaling-Up Improvement Programme Mid-point Event in London. The event was organised by the Health Foundation, the main funder for the six participating projects. The focus of the meeting was on evaluation and sustainability of improvement.

PowerPoint PresentationThe day was designed to be as interactive as possible and teams were asked to bring materials with them, such as information, pictures, posters, leaflets, data, etc., to put up on a pin board, with the purpose of giving a visual story of their project for other teams to view during and between sessions. This created a wonderful opportunity for teams to learn about each other’s projects and discuss issues (such as successes and challenges) around their progress.

A number of interesting talks were presented around evaluating and sustaining scaling-up improvements, such as the sessions facilitated by Tom Ling/Bryn Garrod (RAND Europe) and Kathy Elliott (NCAT) respectively. One of the most stimulating and thought-provoking sessions, “Influencing for sustainability”, asked delegates to split into two large groups and have one person from each project team ‘make a case’ for their project, facilitated by Carl Smith (Frontline) and Jamie Ripman (Practive). At the end of each brief presentation, the rest of the delegates provided feedback on their performance and suggestions on how to improve their style and adjust the context of the presentation to better fit the target audience’s agenda.

At the end of the day, Sally Williams (Frontline) and Valentina Karas (the Health Foundation) brought the event to its close by reflecting on the day and discussing future actions.

By Despina Laparidou

Posted on by

Improvement Science and Research Methods Seminar – Cognitive Interviews – Fiona Togher

CaHRU_logotypeAs part of the CaHRU Improvement Science and Research Methods seminar series, Fiona Togher presented a fascinating seminar on the use of cognitive interviews on 28 June 2016. Fiona eloquently described how cognitive interviews can and indeed should be used as an integral part of questionnaire design. She explained how some of the potential problems found in data collected by questionnaires can be directly apportioned to participants understanding and perception of the questions along with issues of memory retrieval and the response process. Traditional field testing of questionnaires does not highlight these issues as this type of testing will only analyse whether a participant answers a question or not. It does not assess the thought process behind the participant’s decision to answer the question in that way.

fionaCognitive interviews are an in-depth question by question discussion with typical participants designed to assess their comprehension, retrieval, judgement and response process. From this it is possible to determine the suitability and relevance of questions to the target audience, thereby producing clear questionnaires that will themselves produce more robust data. Fiona was able to show practical application of this technique through her own experiences whilst developing a Patient Reported Experience Measure (PREM) for use in Ambulance Services in England. Her personal experience of using cognitive interviews and relaxed and engaging presentation style made this an interesting, informative and enjoyable seminar.

photo2italiccolourWORDSFiona recommended the following book as a good starting place for understanding this method: Willis, G. B. (2004) Cognitive Interviewing: A Tool for Improving Questionnaire Design Sage Publications, Inc. There is also a follow on book: Willis, G.B. (2015) Analysis of the Cognitive Interview in Questionnaire Design (Understanding Qualitative Research) OUP, USA. The next Improvement Science and Methods seminar will take place on 13th September, 2016 where Prof Chris Bridle, director of the Lincoln Institute for Health, will be discussing accumulative evidence synthesis.

By Dr Stephanie Armstrong

Posted on by

Jolien Vos awarded best PhD project award at ICT4AWE conference in Rome 2016

VPhD student Jolien Vos was awarded the Best PhD Project Award for her paper, ‘Care Navigation in Older People with Multimorbidity – Feasibility and Acceptability of using ICT’ at this year’s International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health (ICT4AWE). The conference brought together experts in Computer Science and Health Sciences in Rome (Italy) on 21st and 22nd April 2016.

Jolien presentingThe conference included keynotes on ‘Can ICT Assist Learning and Living’ (by Prof. Margaret Ross) and ‘Senior Homo Digitalis’ (by Prof. Hubert Österle), together with oral sessions and poster presentations on topics such as: Telemedicine and e-Health; Monitoring, Accessibility and User Interfaces; Robotics and Devices for Independent Living and HCI for Ageing Populations. The conference addressed current challenges such as the lack of integrated systems, ethical considerations of technology in health and social care and the risks and dangers of technology in this setting.

Jolien’s PhD takes place in the area of Digital Health and Social Care and her full paper on care navigation in older Vpeople with multimorbidity was accepted for the Doctoral Consortium. Papers and presentations for the Consortium were reviewed and scored by the independent advisory board. At the end of the presentation, a general discussion and reflection was held with the doctoral student and the members of the advisory board. Having constructive discussion with senior leaders in the field and receiving their feedback provided a wonderful and invaluable opportunity for Jolien and other doctoral candidates. The paper will be included in the list of conference best papers and invited for an extended and revised version publication in a book or journal of the Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information Control and Communication (INSTICC).

By Jolien Vos

Posted on by

Patients and health professionals join research team to hear about early CHROMED study findings

chromedevent1Research participants along with their spouse or carer, and health professionals who took part in the CHROMED trial were invited to a feedback session on Wednesday 23rd March at the Petwood Hotel in Woodhall Spa to mark the end of the study and to hear about initial results from the trial.

 

chromedteamCHROMED (Clinical Trials for Elderly Patients with Multiple Diseases) is a European Commission (Framework 7) funded randomised control trial (RCT) which was conducted over three years in seven European countries. The study looked at the impact of telemonitoring equipment in the homes of older people (aged 60 years or over) with a chronic condition commonly known as COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and an associated heart condition. The University of Lincoln and Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS) collaborated closely on this study with partners in Liverpool, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, and Slovenia.

chromedevent2Dr Jo Middlemass, study research nurse, gave a presentation detailing the early results. In the feasibility (testing) phase a new breathing device (Resmon Pro) was shown to have identified a chest infection five days before it was treated. It was too early to present the results from the main study but Jo described the findings from interviews carried out with those participants who had the equipment in their homes. David Madeley (technician from Electronic Assistive Technology Service at LCHS) set up the equipment at the event to give everyone who wished to do so, and particularly those who were in the observation arm, an opportunity to try the equipment.

The event was positively received and culminated in a delicious afternoon tea!

By Dr Jo Middlemass

Posted on by

Dr Murray Smith, health economist and econometrician, joins CaHRU

Dr Murray D Smith joined CaHRU this month in order to contribute expertise in health economics and econometrics to the work of the unit. He brings with him a collection of projects in health economics, including involvement in HEAT (helicobacter bacteria eradication in persons aged 65+ who are regularly using low dose aspirin) which is one of the largest randomised controlled medical trials ever to be conducted in this country.

Murray750Previous projects in which Murray was engaged in the capacity of health economics include a trial feasibility study amongst children with Down syndrome who have otitis media with effusion (“glue ear”), and the economic evaluation of a volunteer doula service targeted at pregnant women who are socioeconomically disadvantaged. A current project of Murray’s involves the econometric modelling of teicoplanin trough serum concentration levels, where teicoplanin, a glycopeptide antibiotic used to treat gram-positive bacterial infections, is administered daily as hospital outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy.

Bespoke computer programming provides a major contribution to the success of this and many of Murray’s other projects. Influencing his approach to computational work has been the use of symbolic computer algebra, oriented especially to tackle problems in mathematical statistics. In a long-standing collaboration with Colin Rose, outcomes of their work include the mathStatica© software package that adds on to the Mathematica® programming language, with uses that are illustrated extensively throughout their book entitled Mathematical Statistics with Mathematica (2002; 2013).”