Posted on December 19, 2017 by Niroshan Siriwardena

CaHRU receives university team award for achievement in research

This 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).

The 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/).

This 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.

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Niroshan Siriwardena

Community and Health Research Unit forms new Research Centre

The 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.

The 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.

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Niroshan Siriwardena

Lincoln Institute for Health wins team achievement award for enterprise

The Lincoln Institute for Health (LIH), of which the Community and Health Research Unit is a constituent group, was judged winner in the University of Lincoln team award for achievement in enterprise. Profs Nick Blagden (left) and Steve McKay (right) pictured below received the award on behalf of the LIH. The LIH is the first cross-college interdisciplinary institute at the University of Lincoln and developed through discussion between a members of the Colleges of Science and Social Sciences with support from Pro Vice Chancellors and heads of the College of Social Sciences and Science, Profs Sara Owen and Andrew Hunter and the executive including Prof Mary Stuart and Prof Ieuan Owen.

Academics realised through that through their common interest in health-related research they had a unique opportunity to develop the an Institute where researchers and clinicians could better understand the healthcare needs of patients and populations; work closely with patients, public, and health and social care partners locally, regionally and nationally to find solutions to address these needs in a way that would be more relevant; test these solutions with patients and professionals enabling them to maximise future uptake and impact of our research.

The Institute connects research from ‘cell to community’, from researchers working on cellular mechanisms of disease, through design of new drugs and drug delivery methods, novel tests and treatments using computers and engineering, health prevention and promotion through sport and exercise, right through to developing and testing drugs and interventions in health settings in primary care, ambulance services and hospitals.

The research groups involved are Molecular Basis of Disease (MBOD), Drug Design and Delivery (DDAD), Laboratory of Vision Engineering (LOVE), Lincoln Centre for Social Computing (LiSC), Perception and Cognition (PAC), Health Advancement Research Team (HART), Policy Studies Research Centre (PSRC), and CaHRU. Other groups are likely to join the Institute including from the College of Art, Architecture and Design. The institute has also had strong support from health service partners: United Lincolnshire Hospitals, East Midlands Ambulance Service, Lincolnshire Community Health Services, and Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation NHS Trusts. The new director of the Institute, Professor Chris Bridle, will start at the university in January 2015.