Tag Archives: CaHRU

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Laura Simmons presents systematic review on sickness absence interventions

warwick2Laura Simmons, PhD student in CaHRU and the Lincoln Institute for Health, recently attended the Division of Occupational Psychology Annual Conference on the 10th-12th January in Stratford-upon-Avon.

The conference’s main theme surrounded the notion of “Evolution +/or Revolution”, focussing on the contribution of new research whilst strengthening existing evidence. LauraSimmons2Keynote speakers included colleagues with expertise in leadership (Dr Edwin A. Locke) and employee wellbeing (Professor Karina Nielsen). Speaking about his experience of using the P value in Psychology, Andy Field presented an interesting session on the use of research methods within Psychology. There were a mixture of oral presentations, discussions and symposiums on a wide range of topics focused on applying research to an organisational setting. Laura attended sessions on workplace resilience and adventurous training (Nicola Bass) and Schwartz Rounds as an intervention to support employee wellbeing (Imelda McCarthy).

warwick1Laura also presented the results of the review, which was conducted alongside her colleagues Prof Christopher Bridle, Prof Niro Siriwardena and Dr Arwel Jones. The review focused on synthesising evidence on interventions that aimed to reduce sickness absence among healthcare workers. The poster was received well among delegates and sparked conversation regarding the applicability to healthcare systems within the United Kingdom.

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CaHRU receives university team award for achievement in research

CaHRU2017webThis year members of the Community and Health Research Unit received the University of Lincoln team award for Achievement in Research at the Individual Merit and Team Achievement Awards 2017. This was the team’s fifth team award over the past 6 years and the fourth time the team have received the team award for achievement in research. Members of the team include Prof Niro Siriwardena (director), Prof Graham Law, Dr Murray Smith, Dr Zahid Asghar, Dr Coral Sirdifield, Dr Stephanie Armstrong, Dr Julie Pattinson, Dr Rebecca Marples, Viet-Hai Phung, Despina Laparidou, Michael Toze, Laura Simmons, Joseph Akanuwe, Dr Nadeeka Chandraratne, Dr Ravindra Pathirathna and Sue Bowler (administrator).

ResearchTeamAward2017CertificateThe CaHRU team are striving to conduct research which will make a difference to patients and healthcare delivery. The group conducts basic and translational interdisciplinary research in collaboration with health service and academic partners.  It currently has over 30 active projects in progress across a range of research methods from systematic reviews (e.g. role of community first responders, ethics of ambulance trials), major clinical trials (investigating conditions such as hyper-acute care of stroke, prehospital pain management, ambulance hypoglycaemia pathways and primary care for insomnia), observational studies (investigating prehospital pain and seizure management), qualitative designs (community first responders, dementia carers, ethics of ambulance trials, fairness of medical licensing exams), consensus methods (ambulance indicators), and surveys (healthcare for offenders on community sentences) to quality improvement programmes (prescribing safety) and international research networks (ethics of ambulance trials). Details of current studies are available on the CaHRU website (http://cahru.org.uk/research/).

CaHRU_logotypeThis has led to over 20 publications in the past year covering research on development of new pathways and indicators for ambulance services, assessment and treatment for insomnia and use of health technology innovations, in major journals such as Resuscitation, Annals of Emergency medicine, Health Technology Assessment, Health Expectations and Lancet Psychiatry. The team have  received several major grants over the past year, particularly from the National Institute for Health Research, as well as continuing to work on studies funded by the Wellcome Trust, Health Foundation and Falck Foundation. This year we have also welcomed international fellows from the University of Colombo to the team for the first time.

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CaHRU/LIH Research methods seminar: Realist evaluation with Dr Paul Leighton

WP_20170124_12_05_46_RichThe latest in the CAHRU/LIH research methods seminars was given by Dr Paul Leighton on 24 October 2017 on the subject of ‘Realist evaluation in health services research’. Paul Leighton is a senior research fellow at the University of Nottingham, deputy director of the NIHR Research Design Service for the East Midlands and an expert in health services research, qualitative methods and process evaluation. The presentation covered the philosophy of critical realism and how this related to realist methods, described a practical example of a realist evaluation and finished with concluding thoughts and comment on the method.

Critical realism was described as a philosophical approach developed by Roy Bhaskar that adopts an ontological position of being in which: the actual world is independent of the human mind and the mind is capable of perceiving the empirical world, but unable to directly perceive unseen forces in the real world. Gravity and social class were cited as examples of unseen forces in the real world.

WordItOut-word-cloud-2565294“Realist” or “realistic evaluation” was described as a form of primary research methodology derived from critical realist philosophy, by Ray Pawson and Nick Tilley, which acknowledges the potential for unseen forces and accepts that interventions will not always work or work in the same way because of local contextual factors will influence how an intervention works and the impact it has. Realistic evaluation was summed up as “What works, for whom, in what circumstances?”

The process of realistic evaluation involves developing a programme theory, which theorises what should happen and how it might happen. This so-called mid-range theory is tested using qualitative and/or quantitative methods to explore the context, mechanisms (often hidden) and outcomes (C+M=O), revised iteratively and tested again, leading to a refined mid-range theory.

This was illustrated using the Falls in Care Homes (FinCH) study and summarised by concluding that interventions will not work all the time in all settings, but will work differently in different contexts.

[su_document url=”https://communityandhealth.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/files/2017/11/lincoln-realist-oct17.pdf” responsive=”no”]Multi-morbidity, goal-oriented care, the community and equity[/su_document]

A. N. Siriwardena

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CaHRU brings together Lincoln sleep researchers for LIH seminar

Professor Niro Siriwardena led the recent Lincoln Institute for Health (LIH) research development seminar entitled, ‘Things that go bump in the night’: exploring the problem of tinnitus and sleep.

This seminar brought together researchers at the University of Lincoln with a common interest in sleep research to explore interdisciplinary research into insomnia. Several research centres, groups and experts from a number of disciplines are members of the LIH and each have a record of funded studies investigating sleep and insomnia in a variety of conditions. The work builds on the University of Lincoln’s 4* impact case study on insomnia from REF2014.

 

The seminar focused on how to combine different research approaches to explore how the team might improve the management of insomnia linked to tinnitus. This began with presentations from each participant on their experience and current work in this field:

  • Niro, who is professor of primary and prehospital care, began by describing CaHRU’s translational research focus, seeking to improve health care processes and outcomes. A key area has been in primary care for people with insomnia which includes systematic reviews, qualitative studies and the development and evaluation of psychological interventions for insomnia.
  • WordItOut-word-cloud-2565244Prof Alina Rodriguez, professor in psychology, presented her approach combining methodological strategies including psychological, epidemiological, and molecular to understand the development of behavioural, cognitive, emotional or physical problems across the lifespan, seeking to identify factors amenable to change that can be translated into public health policy or interventions.
  • Prof Graham Law is professor in medical statistics and has worked extensively in epidemiology and medical statistics, focussing on sleep and the consequences of good and poor sleep on metabolic and cardiovascular health.
  • Dr Simon Durrant, senior lecturer in psychology, initially trained as a musician (counter tenor) before developing his expertise in the cognitive neuroscience of sleep. He leads the sleep lab at Lincoln using techniques such as polysomnography, EEG and actigraphy to understand the physiological basis of sleep and its disorders.

The group then discussed, together and with other academics present, the problem of tinnitus (noise generated internally in the body) which affects around 10% of adults and is associated with insomnia in over three-quarters of those with the condition, particularly causing difficulty getting off to sleep (so-called sleep latency). There followed an exploration of potential ways to investigate the problem of insomnia linked to tinnitus (e.g. using evidence synthesis, analysis of large datasets, and qualitative designs) together with the potential for intervention develop (e.g. using CBT for insomnia together with CBT for tinnitus) and evaluation of these.

The seminar ended with suggestions and proposals for how to take this work forward.

[su_document url=”https://communityandhealth.dev.lincoln.ac.uk/files/2017/11/Tinnitus_insomnia_finalrevised.pdf” responsive=”no”]Multi-morbidity, goal-oriented care, the community and equity[/su_document]

A. N. Siriwardena

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CaHRU newsletter (Summer 2017)

CaHRU_logotypeThe latest edition of the CaHRU Newsletter (Summer 2017) was published in September 2017. 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/2017/09/CaHRU-Newsletter-Summer-2017.pdf” responsive=”no”]Multi-morbidity, goal-oriented care, the community and equity[/su_document]