ScHARR Mini Master Class - Undertaking data-centric healthcare research - Tuesday 18th January 2022

Undertaking data-centric healthcare research: Experiences from urgent & emergency care systems
Professor Susan Mason
Tuesday 18th January 2022

Join us online for a monthly online masterclass by one of our health research experts based in The School of Health and Related Research

About this event

Join the live session by clicking the link below.https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/fbae374ad6ed4eeea1ed792b69cc2b6c

Title

Undertaking data-centric healthcare research: Experiences from urgent & emergency care systems

Presenter

Professor Suzanne Mason

(Professor of Emergency Care)

Abstract

This talk will focus on the importance of developing real world data systems for research, the value it can bring to research and the importance for improving the health and care of populations. I will talk about my own research journey using real-world data relating to urgent and emergency care. I will describe the challenges involved in managing the governance and data acquisition hurdles, describing how we developed linked datasets and provide some examples of how it helps us to understand and improve the system.

Bio

Professor Mason qualified in medicine from London University in 1990 and then trained initially in surgery and then specialised in Emergency Medicine.

From there she spent a year as a Royal College of Surgeons of England Research Fellow and was awarded an MD whilst undertaking higher training in Emergency Medicine.

Professor Mason joined Sheffield University as a Senior Clinical Lecturer in 2001, was promoted to Reader in 2007 and professor in 2010. She divides her time between the university and as a consultant at the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Trust emergency department.

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/scharr/people/staff/suzanne-mason

https://twitter.com/profsuemason

ScHARR Mini Master Class in Health Research #13 - Supporting a mentally healthy NHS workforce - Dr Emily Wood - 14th July 1pm

Join us online for a monthly online masterclass by one of our health research experts based in The School of Health and Related Research

Supporting a mentally healthy NHS workforce - Dr Emily Wood

Book your place here

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/supporting-a-mentally-healthy-nhs-workforce-dr-emily-wood-tickets-148269352625

Abstract:

There are over 100,000 vacancies in the NHS, meaning 1 in 12 jobs are unfilled. Half of staff report working unpaid overtime and 1 in 8 left the NHS in 2018. Chronic understaffing and long hours leads to significant stress with 40% of staff reporting suffering from work related stress in the NHS staff survey.

In 2015, NHS Professionals launched a large campaign to move NHS management thinking away from workforce wellbeing as a ‘nice to have’ and towards seeing it as a priority area. In 2020, NHS Employers launched ‘Get on-board with health and wellbeing priorities’, suggesting not much had changed in five years. Unfortunately this new initiative was launched in March and quickly got overshadowed by the COVID-19 crisis.

The pandemic shifted the focus of stress for the NHS workforce but it did not create it. Many were already struggling.

The majority of workforce wellbeing interventions focus on trying to help the staff member cope with stress. Many of these are short term interventions and do nothing to address the wider causes of stress in the first place. Some have even gone so far as to say these interventions are akin to victim blaming, as they suggest it is the worker’s fault they cannot cope with stress, when we should be looking at why they are under stress in the first place.

This webinar will look at some of the research we have done to model the complex relationships between staff retention, job satisfaction and wellbeing and organisational culture and place that in the wider context.

Bio:

Dr Wood is a mental health nurse researcher working in the School of Health and Related Research and the Health Sciences School at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on workforce issues, including staff experience, retention and wellbeing. She is currently working on two major projects, one on retention of mental health staff funded by the Health Foundation and one on workforce experience funded by the Royal College of Nursing.

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/scharr/people/staff/emily-wood

https://twitter.com/emilyfwood

Join the live session by clicking the link below.

https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/fbae374ad6ed4eeea1ed792b69cc2b6c

The live session takes place in a Collaborate webinar - headphones are advisable and easy to set up. You can join with a computer, tablet or smartphone, Chrome and Firefox offer the best browser experience. You can also use a phone to handle audio while in the session by dialling +44 2033 189610 and entering the PIN: 398 583 2702.

We look forward to seeing you online.

NICE to use wider range of data

Image CC BY 2.0 Janet McKnight
http://bit.ly/31xapc2

From the NICE website:

“NICE already makes use of a wide range of published scientific evidence when developing its guidance for the NHS on health technologies and what constitutes best practice for diagnosing and managing a range of conditions.

We now plan to update our processes and methods for the identification, assessment and interpretation of data. We will also set out the full range of data sources that we will accept and the methods and analytical tools that we will put in place to assess the quality and suitability of data in future.







Data sources could include:

• electronic health record data
• ‘real-world data’ looking at health and social care practice outside of trials, such as registries and clinical audits
• any other relevant data that has been made available for others to use, such as data held by local authorities about public health and social care.

By using a broader range of data, we believe there will be further opportunities to improve our guidance, enable existing recommendations to be updated faster, and  gain a better understanding of the impact our guidance has for people accessing health and social care services.

Details of the next steps for how we will develop information around our methods and process in this area, and our plans for implementation, will be presented at our public board meeting in March, with accompanying papers available on the website.”

ReQoL - Focus of UoS research feature

A team led by Professor John Brazier, together with colleagues from ScHARR – Dr Anju Keetharuth, Dr Jill Carlton, Dr Lizzie Taylor Buck and Janice Connell – and Professor Michael Barkham from the Department of Psychology, are the focus of one of the University's current research features, for their work with ReQoL.

For the full feature, please see link below.

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/research/features/recovering-quality-life

Visit the ReQoL website

NHS England Evidence Based Interventions Programme…

…consultation open on methods to be used.  Closes 28th September 2018.

Or in long form…

“Research evidence shows some interventions are not clinically effective or only effective when they are performed in specific circumstances. And as medical science advances, some interventions are superseded by those that are less invasive or more effective.

At both national and local levels, there is a general consensus that more needs to be done to ensure the least effective interventions are not routinely performed, or only performed in more clearly defined circumstances.

We have formed a new national collaboration with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, NICE, NHS Clinical Commissioners and NHS Improvement' GIRFT programme to turn this consensus into action - the Evidence Based Interventions Programme. This programme is counterpart to the items that should not be routinely prescribed in primary care programme launched in early 2018.

The proposals have been jointly developed by NHS England, NHS Clinical Commissioners, the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges, NICE and NHS Improvement's GIRFT programme in collaboration with the Royal Colleges and patient groups such as Healthwatch.

The proposals aim to reduce avoidable harm to patients, save precious professional time, help clinicians maintain their professional practice in line with the changing evidence base, create headroom for innovation and maximise value and avoid waste for patients and taxpayers.

We are publicly consulting on the design principles of the programme, the interventions we should target initially and proposed clinical criteria, the activity goals we should set and delivery actions, including proposed new terms in the NHS Standard Contract.
During the consultation period we are also hosting face to face events and a series of webinars (online meetings), to gather further clinical, professional and patient views. This will include patient and public events, webinars for CCGs and providers, an event co-hosted by Healthwatch England for their members, events jointly run with Age UK, NHSCC, the Health and Wellbeing Alliance, The NHS Youth Forum and Choices. Please contact us at england.ebinterventions@nhs.net to learn more about these events.

You can read more about the Evidence Based Interventions programme on the NHS England website.”

NHS England and the lack of any economics

CC BY 2.0 Alfy http://bit.ly/2AuUXTF

Does economics have too much influence on the NHS? Judging by the current Clinical Commissioning Policy proposition for Gemcitabine and Capecitabine following surgery for pancreatic cancer, this is unlikely to be the case.

The proposition is open for consultation until 19th August and no economic evidence is considered.  Or have we missed something?

Research to Support Policy - Funding Success for HEDS

HEDS have renewed their collaboration with The Centre for Health Economics (CHE) as part of The National Institute for Health Research new set of 13 NIHR Policy Research Units to undertake research to inform decision-making by government and arms-length bodies.

The £65 million investment over five years will ensure that the government and arms-length bodies have the best possible information and evidence available when making policy decisions about health and social care.

The 13 new NIHR units will provide both a long-term resource for policy research and a rapid-response service to provide evidence for emerging policy needs. The units, which are considered to be an exemplar of good practice in government, will also offer advice to policy makers and analysts on the evidence base and options for policy development.

The units will cover a range of specialisms and conditions, such as behavioural science, adult social care, older people and frailty, and cancer awareness, screening and early diagnosis.

Each university-based NIHR Policy Research Unit will host a multidisciplinary team of researchers from collaborating institutions, to create a critical mass of experts for research in priority areas for health and social care policy.

The units will work closely with the Department of Health and Social Care to determine priorities and provide evidence directly to the Secretary of State for Health, government departments and arms-length bodies, such as NHS England and Public Health England.

Examples of the types of research topics the units may undertake include how behavioural science can help maximise the impact of clinical consultations; how outcomes of social care services vary for different groups of people; and how social inequalities affect the uptake of cancer screening.

Professor Chris Whitty, Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department of Health and Social Care, said:

“Patients and the public deserve a healthcare system that is informed by the latest research and evidence. The NIHR Policy Research Units will make sure that Government decisions affecting our health and care are robust and evidence based.”

These new units, which will begin work in January 2019, join two existing units in mental health and obesity.

Read more about NIHR Policy Research Units

Reform strategies for the NHS: effective or cosmetic cladding? - Dr Jennifer Dixon CBE Guest Pemberton Lecture recording.

Dr Jennifer Dixon CBE delivered the latest ScHARR Pemberton Lecture with the title: 
Reform strategies for the NHS: effective or cosmetic cladding. The recording of the lecture can be viewed here.



The NHS is the largest, highest profile, most complex and risky industry in Europe, in England alone spending £124bn this year, employing over 1m staff and providing care for the majority of the population every year. As is the case across OECD countries, health care costs outstrip GDP growth, and so the search for effective reform is constant. The suite of reforms has changed over the years – how and what has made a difference? How does the current strategy stack up, and are there gaps if the NHS is to make progress faster? How can we tell? And if there were a moratorium on all national policy for 3 years, would patients notice any difference to care? In this lecture, Jennifer draws on her experience from academe, medicine, policy analysis, and the wide portfolio of activities by the Health Foundation to prompt discussion on how progress in the NHS might be optimised. Dr Jennifer Dixon is Chief Executive of the Health Foundation.

The economics of screening for ALD at a newborn screening

A bit of a delay on the HEDS news wire, but still very much news worthy is that our own Alice Bessey, Jim Chilcott and Jo Leavis gave an overview of the process to introduce X-ALD into new born screening to the UK which will support ALD Life’s application to the National Screening Committee. 

The talk titled 'Cost-effectiveness of including X-ALD in the NHS newborn screening programme' was delivered earlier this year at the ALD Life Community Weekend. It aimed to prove that it is economically beneficial to the NHS to test newborn babies for ALD (Adrenoleukodystrophy) at birth. The talk can be viewed below.