Community and Health Research Unit

This year’s annual EMS 999 Research Forum, ‘Research for impact in 999 Emergency Care’ was held in the University of Stirling’s picturesque campus from 26-27 March 2018 and was attended by members of CaHRU, Viet-Hai Phung, Laura Simmons, Greg Whitley and Professor Niro Siriwardena. The preconference sessions included two workshops: Professor Rowena Murray from the University of the West of Scotland led a session on how to write a peer reviewed paper; the other session involved CaHRU’s Professor Niro Siriwardena, with Professor Helen Snooks from the University of Swansea and Roy Norris from Service Users for Primary and Emergency Care Research (SUPER), leading a session on designing and planning research projects and getting them funded.

Shona Robison, the Cabinet Minister for Health and Sport in the Scottish Government introduced the start of the second day. This started with presentations on research that makes a difference and the links between prehospital research and Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA). There then followed a series of four oral presentations, which included a sensitive one from Kelly Hird and Fiona Bell from Yorkshire Ambulance Service about suicide among ambulance staff, and Belinda Flanagan, from the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia, who presented her work on unplanned births in paramedic care.

There was a CaHRU representation in the post-lunch poster session with Viet-Hai Phung presenting on the ‘Perceptions and experiences of community first responders on their role and relationships: qualitative interview study’, Rob Spaight from East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust presenting work led by Dr Murray Smith on ‘Modelling of patient outcomes after emergency treatment for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest by paramedics and community first responders’ and Prof Niro Siriwardena presenting an interview study led by Dr Stephanie Armstrong of paramedics’ perceptions of the ethics of ambulance-based trials. Last year’s prize winner, Dr Edward Duncan, from Stirling University, subsequently recounted his experience of presenting at the Paramedic Australasia International Conference.

The final substantive session of the conference was a lively and thought-provoking panel discussion which included Janette Turner from the University of Sheffield and Professor Niro Siriwardena, on future priorities for prehospital research. The conference closed with a prize giving session for some excellent presentations and posters that were given throughout the conference.

By Viet-Hai Phung

Six members of the CaHRU team recently attended the 999 EMS Research Forum conference on Wednesday 29th March 2017 at the Bristol Science Centre. The team members attending were Professor Niro Siriwardena, Dr Zahid Asghar, Dr Stephanie Armstrong, Mr Viet-Hai Phung, Laura Simpson and Joseph Akanuwe.

The 999 EMS Research Forum is an international partnership bringing together academics and health-care providers with interest in emergency care research. The forum aims to encourage, promote and disseminate research and evidence-based policy and practice in prehospital healthcare. The conference, which was hosted by the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, included keynote presentations, peer-reviewed presentations, moderated poster presentation sessions and the presentation of prizes and closing remarks.

The conference theme was, “The way forward for Emergency care Research: Inclusion; Collaboration; Sustainability”. The morning was chaired by Professor Jonathan Benger. Keynote speakers included: Professor Ann John of Swansea University Medical School who discussed the emergency care of people who self-harm; Dr Sarah Voss of the University of the West of England, who discussed the social and cultural influences on the design and delivery of collaborative research in emergency care. Other keynote speakers were: Janette Turner of the University of Sheffield, who spoke on the “Ambulance Response Programme”; and Dr Andrew Appelboam with Alex Sharp who presented the, “REVERT to the future: Dissemination and Implementation” study. Last but not the least was Professor Steve Goodacre, Chair of the NIHR Health Technology Assessment Clinical Evaluation and Trials Board, who talked about the way forward with Health Technology Assessment and the HTA programme.

There followed five interesting oral presentations of the highest rated peer-reviewed abstracts submitted. First, Jonathan Chippendale from the East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust, presented a pilot study to assess the feasibility of paramedics delivering antibiotics to ‘red flag’ sepsis patients. Next, Joanne Coster from the University of Sheffield talked about the multi-method consensus development of new ambulance service quality and performance measures. Dr Mathew Booker of the University of Bristol drew on early findings from their prehospital ethnographic study and discussed why primary care problems end up receiving ambulance treatment.

The moderated poster sessions involved a five minute presentation with two minutes for questions and answers per poster. Members of the CaHRU team presented high quality posters. Professor Niro Siriwardena led the poster presentation on: a reliability and validity of an Ambulance Patient Reported Experience Measure (A-PREM) pilot study. Dr Zahid Asghar presented the poster on a cross section study which explores factors increasing paramedics’ likelihood of administering analgesia in prehospital pain (EXPLAIN). Dr Stephanie Armstrong presented the poster on: consent as an ethical consideration in the conduct of prehospital ambulance randomised controlled clinical trials: a systematic review.

The conference proved interesting and worthwhile with opportunities to learn and meet potential research collaborators. The presentation of prizes to deserving winners and closing remarks brought the conference to a close.

By Joseph Akanuwe