Category Archives: Impact

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CaHRU sleep research cited in UK parliamentary briefings on Sleep and Health

Sleep and healthResearch from CaHRU was cited in the recently published parliamentary briefing on Sleep and Health and Sleep and Long-term Health. The briefing was issued as a POSTnote from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology and cited CAHRU’s work on primary care for insomnia including the Resources for Effective Sleep Treatment (REST) website. Professor Graham Law and Niro Siriwardena met with one of the co-authors Lev Tankelevitch earlier this year to discuss their work.

Sleep and longterm healthThe briefing on Sleep and Health also cites two systematic reviews led by CaHRU’s Dr Coral Sirdifield on patient and general practitioner (GP) perceptions of the problems of benzodiazepine sleeping pills, an article by Prof Siriwardena providing guidance for GPs, and the OASIS trial (led by Prof Dan Freeman of Oxford University) showing the effects of treatment using digital Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (dCBTi) on psychiatric symptoms. The briefing on Sleep and Long-term Health  research papers on sleep assessment and the DIALS trial showing the effect of dCBTI on quality of life which is due for publication this autumn.

rest-logoThe REST project is also explicitly mentioned: ‘One strategy to improve training for healthcare professionals is through online training developed by the Resources for Effective Sleep Treatment project’ and the REST e-learning programme for GPs and healthcare staff has been accessed over 16,000 times by users in over 160 countries.

POSTnotes are distributed in paper copies to Parliamentarians, placed in the reference libraries of both Houses of Parliament and also promoted via social media using Twitter @POST_UK. CaHRU are currently collaborating in a major trial of sleep restriction therapy in primary care, the HABIT trial. You can find out more about our work on sleep from our infographic on ‘Sleep and Insomnia‘.

By Prof Niro Siriwardena

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CaHRU presents research on sleep at college summer showcase

BrayfordThe annual research showcase, featuring speakers from the College of Social Science took place on 6 June 2018. Professor Niro Siriwardena presented on CaHRU’s work on sleep. Sleep is fundamental to our wellbeing, from birth to old age. Poor sleep affects health, sickness, life, death, productivity, and the wider economy. Sleep is as important to health as other lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise but, compared to these, is under-researched and under-invested in. There are effective psychological treatments for insomnia but these are not widely available, whereas less effective and potentially harmful drug treatments are commonly used.

CSSsummershowcase2He described the work of members of CaHRU together with partners at the University of Lincoln and other academic institutions (Oxford, Manchester, Glasgow, Ghent), in partnership with service users, staff and healthcare organisations, locally, nationally and internationally. Over the past 15 years, using systematic reviews, observational and qualitative studies, quasi-experiments and trials, staff in CaHRU have explored the problem of primary care for sleep, how this might be improved, and what effect this is having on sleep, prescribing, and health outcomes.

INB2The work has led to a major multicentre trial, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (£1.8M), investigating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of sleep restriction therapy, a behavioural treatment for insomnia, delivered in primary care. These studies and the wider impacts of this work were presented to those present.

 

[su_document url=”https://communityandhealth.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/files/2018/07/Sleep_Siriwardena.pdf” width=”660″]Multi-morbidity, goal-oriented care, the community and equity[/su_document]

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CaHRU Newsletter (Spring 2018)

CaHRU_logotypeThe latest edition of the CaHRU Newsletter (Spring 2018) was published in July 2018. The newsletter presents the work of the research centre over the previous three months and includes articles from the CaHRU blog covering publications, conferences and funding. The newsletter is written by members of the CaHRU team and produced by Sue Bowler, CaHRU administrator.

[su_document url=”https://communityandhealth.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/files/2018/07/CaHRU-Newsletter-Spring-2018.pdf” width=”660″]Multi-morbidity, goal-oriented care, the community and equity[/su_document]

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CaHRU present at EMS2018 conference in Copenhagen

emscopenhagen CaHRU was represented by Prof Niro Siriwardena together with colleagues from East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust at the recent EMS2018 conference which took place at Copenhagen’s Tivoli Congress Hall, 16-18 April 2018. The theme of the conference was “It Takes a System to Save a Life – Next is Now”, emphasising the importance of systems in emergency and out-of-hospital care.

photo2italiccolourWORDSProf Siriwardena presented work from the NIHR funded Prehospital Outcomes for Evidence Based Evaluation (PhOEBE) programme with an abstract entitled, ‘Preventable mortality in patients at low risk of death requiring prehospital ambulance care: retrospective case record review study‘.

emschamp1Other studies involving CaHRU and East Midlands Ambulance Service were an abstract presented by Janette Turner from University of Sheffield, also from the PhOEBE study: ‘Development of risk adjusted indicators of EMS performance and quality (phoebe programme)‘ and another from Dr Alison Porter’s Electronic Records in Ambulances study, ‘The digital ambulance: electronic patient clinical records in prehospital emergency care‘. All the abstracts were published in BMJ Open.

heartrunnersAnother highlight of the conference was the European EMS Championship competition where teams from all over the world were assessed in various emergency situations – the competition winners from a strong field including Denmark, Scotland, and Australia, were the team from East Midlands! The social programme included a walk through Copenhagen with the city’s ‘Heart Runners’, a programme to train the population in basic life support for cardiac arrest and a dinner at the Circus Building in the town centre. Overall the conference provided an excellent opportunity to present CaHRU’s work and to hear about developments in prehospital care in the beautiful setting of Copenhagen.

By Prof Niro Siriwardena