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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

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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

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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).”

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CaHRU team presents at SAPC Trent Regional Spring meeting

Zahid@NAPCRG2014_750Members of the CaHRU team attended the Society for Academic Primary Care Trent Regional Spring conference on Tuesday 15 March 2016 at College Court Conference Centre in Leicester. At the meeting were Drs. Zahid Asghar and Coral Sirdifield and PhD student Joseph Akanuwe (giving oral presentations), Dr Jo Middlemass and Jolien Vos (who led a workshop on multimorbidity), and Despina Laparidou, who gave a poster presentation. Prof Siriwardena was in attendance to support the team.

sapcleicester_coralThe Leicester Department of Primary Care and Diabetes Centre hosted the event on behalf of the Universities of Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Lincoln, and as always it proved to be a worthwhile event with excellent keynote speakers and high quality presentations of research including from members of CaHRU. The opening keynote was given by Prof Maureen Baker, a Lincolnshire GP, who spoke on the ‘Future of General Practice’, describing the current problems of underfunding and poor morale and how general practice which deals with 90% of patient contacts with 9% of NHS funding can develop in future.

sapcleicester_joIn the multimorbidity workshop Jolien Vos presented her doctoral study on, ‘Care networks of older people with multimorbidity: social network analysis and qualitative study’ and led a discussion on patient vignettes derived from these. Jo Middlemass presented a European study, ‘Perceptions and experiences of telemonitoring in older patients with multimorbidity: a qualitative study’ and discussed implementation of remote monitoring technologies with delegates. They were joined by Steve Leven from Leicester who presented on the link between pay-for-performance with deprivation and multimorbidity.

sapcleicester_despinaDespina Laparidou gave a poster session on ‘Challenges for carers of people with dementia and their support needs from health and social care providers: a qualitative study’. After lunch, Prof Richard McManus, from Oxford presented his groundbreaking TASMINH studies on ‘Self-management of hypertension – can patients do it better?’ The answer, a qualified yes but with help from primary care practitioners, is a triumph for supported self-care.

sapcleicester_josephAt the final session Dr Zahid Asghar presented his work with Dr Jon Dixon (Sheffield University) and Prof Siriwardena on ambulance care for people with convulsions, ‘Exploratory cross-sectional study of factors associated with transport to hospital after suspected seizure’ and Joseph Akanuwe described his doctoral study, ‘Exploring patient and practitioner perspectives of QCancer use in primary care consultations’. The session was attended by Prof Carol Coupland from Nottingham University, one of the originators of QCancer.

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CaHRU team attends CHROMED European trial meeting in Uppsala, Sweden

Dr Jo Middlemass, trial nurse, and Prof Niro Siriwardena who are members of the Clinical Trials for Elderly Patients with Multiple Diseases (CHROMED) (Funding by the European Commission’s 7th Framework Programme) attended the final investigator team meeting in Uppsala earlier this month (March 2016).

IMG_4175The study includes a consortium of seven European countries led by TESAN (Italy), Restech and including Del Politcnico Di Milano (Italy), University of Liverpool (UK), Tallina Tehnikaulikool (Estonia), Universitat De Barcelona (Spain), Uppsala Universitet (Sweden), Universitetssykehuset Nord-Norge (Norway), Bolnisnica Sezana Zavod (Slovenia), University of Lincoln, Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust.

The CHROMED study has been investigating the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a telemonitoring system for people with multiple chronic disease, specifically Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and heart disease. The trial in Lincoln involved a feasibility study of five patients and a randomisation cohort of 32 patients aged 65 years and above in Lincolnshire. The monitoring equipment included a novel device for measuring lung function (using a technique called forced oscillation) and a wrist clinic measuring pulse, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and temperature.

chromedThe study has already shown evidence that monitoring can detect patients’ worsening condition, even before symptoms are apparent. The study data have now been collected and are being analysed to see whether the monitoring system has improved patients’ outcomes, quality of life and healthcare costs.