Tag Archives: CaHRU

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Jolien Vos wins Postgraduate Choice Award at Lincoln Student Union Awards 2015

suawardsJolien Vos, graduate research assistant and PhD student with CaHRU, was winner of the student Postgraduate Choice Award at the University of Lincoln Student Union Awards ceremony on 23 April 2015. The award, sponsored by the Graduate School, is given to individuals who improve the postgraduate learning environment and encourage collaborative, interdisciplinary work.

JolienJolien won the award for being an inspiration to other research students due to the quality and interdisciplinary nature of her work. Jolien has supported other PhD students by co-running, with staff member Kelly Sisson, the successful PhD PALS Scheme. She has also represented the University at a number of external events and conferences, including the internationally renowned Ageing & Society conference, where she won an award in 2014 for her presentation from her doctoral studies on navigating the health care system.

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Community and Health Research Unit forms new Research Centre

CaHRU WebsiteThe Community and Health Research Unit (CaHRU) has been awarded status as a university Research Centre. CaHRU’s mission is to increase people’s health and well-being by improving the quality, performance and systems of care across the health, social and third sector care services through interdisciplinary translational research.

CaHRU’s objectives are:

  • to improve people’s health and well-being by shaping the development of health and social care services and systems in the UK and internationally through excellent interdisciplinary translational research;
  • to promote high quality care which enhances the experience, safety, effectiveness, efficiency and equity of healthcare by examining and transforming the performance and function of health and social care practice, organisation and delivery;
  • to  engage service users, carers, practitioners, managers, commissioners and policymakers in our research;
  • to ensure that we maximise the impact of our research by responding to service priorities, working with service users and care organisations to embed research into practice and disseminate findings using the notion of ‘dissemination by design’ and through a variety of media;
  • to enable our researchers to achieve their highest potential through a research environment that encourages cooperation, collaboration and mutual support.

stethoscopeThe new centre, which will still be known as CaHRU, is staffed by 14 core researchers but benefits from working with many colleagues in other academic groups, other academic institutions and health services in a range of disciplines and focuses on translational, empirical and operational research relating to quality improvement in health and social care.

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CaHRU receives university team award for achievement in research 2014

CaHRUaward2014750The Community and Health Research Unit received the team award for achievement research at the University of Lincoln awards on 19 November 2014, where Despina Laparidou, Jolien Vos, Dr Jo Middlemass, Ana Godoy Caballero and Viet-Hai Phung (pictured left to right) accepted the award on behalf of CaHRU. Since the submission to the Research Excellence Framework a year ago the unit has particularly focused on developing early career researchers (ECRs), junior researchers and doctoral students, aiming to develop their research expertise, skills and outputs as future researchers and research leaders, and to increase capacity for international and world class research.

CaHRU_logotypeThis is being done through: mentorship and support for junior staff; a monthly research writing group at which all members of the team, NHS colleagues, visiting professors and East Midlands NIHR Research Design Service staff meet to review research bids and journal papers prior to submission, and where colleagues also have an opportunity to review feedback from reviewers prior to revising bids and journal papers; a six weekly implementation science and research methods seminar at which members of the CaHRU team and external academic experts present the latest ideas on methodology.

The unit also provides opportunities for junior staff to develop their skills and expertise by working with more senior members of the team and external academic experts from the rest of the EU and internationally on projects. Our efforts have led to successful grant funding for the team and increased our outputs in high quality peer reviewed journals involving ECRs and junior researchers as lead authors and co-authors.

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Michael Toze joins CaHRU

CaHRU Website

CaHRU WebsiteMichael Toze has recently joined CaHRU on a doctoral studentship funded by the Lincoln University Research Investment Fund. He gained a BA (Hons) History from the University of Durham and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies from Kingston University.

mtozePrior to joining CaHRU, he worked for eight years in a variety of roles within local government, including committee management, policy development and performance measurement. He also volunteered with, and at times managed, small voluntary and community organisations working with the LGBT+ community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and other minority gender identities and sexual orientations). This developed his interest in how individuals within the LGBT+ community interact with social networks, community organisations and statutory services.

Michael will be taking this further in his PhD, supervised by Drs Zowie Davy and Karen Windle, which is looking at health and social care issues affecting older LGBT+ people in rural and urban communities.

 

 

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CHROMED meeting under the midnight sun

Members of  Community and Health Research Unit (CaHRU), Jo Middlemass (research nurse) and Prof Niro Siriwardena travelled north to Tromsø, Norway, in the Arctic Circle, to discuss progress and the next phase of the European Commission Framework 7 funded study, Clinical tRials fOr elderly patients with MultiplE Disease (CHROMED).

chromed partners at Tromso

CHROMED is an international multicentre randomised control trial in five European countries: United Kingdom, Sweden, Estonia, tromso cathedralSpain and Slovenia, representing different social and organisational contexts in Europe. The study is seeking to investigate the effectiveness of health and lifestyle status management using telehealth to support elderly patients with multiple conditions including chronic obstructive lung disease and chronic heart disease or sleep apnoea. The Lincoln arm of the study, which involves a partnership between Lincoln Community Health Services NHS Trust and CaHRU at the University of Lincoln comprises a feasibility study of five patients followed by a full study involving 32 patients.

tromso midnight sunTromsø in the summer has permanent daylight, which means that after a hard day’s work many local residents and visiting researchers can be seen climbing the local mountains to enjoy the view!