A team of researchers in Sheffield led by Jonathan Michaels, Professor of Clinical Decision Science at ScHARR, has recently been awarded an NIHR Programme Grant for Applied Research to carry out a five-year research programme looking at issues around the configuration of vascular services.
This research programme will develop tools to design, develop and monitor the provision of vascular services. It will use data collected by the NHS about treatments, and will ask service users and clinicians how various aspects of services are valued and how best to measure outcomes of treatment and the quality of services. It will evaluate how current treatments are provided in different locations and the main issues that impact on local arrangements. It will assess the strength of service users’, clinicians’ and stakeholders’ preferences concerning how services are provided, including clinical outcomes, accessibility, equity and processes of care
The research will develop measures to assess how treatments impact on quality of life, and an electronic system enabling users to provide information about their condition in clinics or on-line. This will help clinicians to plan treatment and measure its effectiveness and cost effectiveness.
The final outputs of the programme will include computer models to identify and predict the most effective ways of delivering vascular services and a set of measures to evaluate clinical outcomes and to assess and monitor service quality and the effects of reorganisation. The methods and outcomes of the programme will have potential value for many other services facing similar pressures.
The programme involves the collaboration between several sections within ScHARR and the Medical School of the University of Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University, the Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The total value of the award is 1.8 million pounds and the programme will run for five years. For further information contact Jonathan Michaels (j.michaels@sheffield.ac.uk).
