School of Health and Related Research projects

Projects:

Urgent and Emergency Care: Understanding demand and possible solutions

Main Supervisor:

Professor Suzanne Mason

s.mason@sheffield.ac.uk

Second Supervisor:

Mr Colin O'Keeffe

c.okeeffe@sheffield.ac.uk

Type of Project:

This will be determined by the specific research questions of interest.  The project will be developed alongside the student and may include the use of existing datasets and be largely quantitative. Alternatively it may be more qualitative in methodology, using interview/focus groups.

Aims and Objectives:

To investigate patient groups who may be amenable to alternative care in the urgent and emergency care system to reduce avoidable attendances and admissions to hospital.

Research Methodology:

You will work on a NIHR funded research collaboration based at ScHARR, in the Centre for Urgent and Emergency Care.  This is a health services research project dedicated to finding solutions to the challenges of demand facing urgent and emergency care. A range of methodologies may be used, determinant on the research question of interest, including: 

• Secondary analysis of available linked urgent and emergency care routine data sets. Avoidable attendances to ED and avoidable admissions to hospital will be identified by interrogating the datasets using SPSS statistics software.
• Other health service research (HSR) methods of literature review, survey and qualitative interviewing to answer research questions

Expected Outcome:       

The expected outcome is to find solutions to better manage demand in the urgent and emergency care system, in Yorkshire and Humber. 

This may be via identifying key patient groups who may be managed more appropriately in the system, avoiding hospital admission. 

It may to better understand provision  in the UEC system, mapping existing ionnovative services and early evaluation of their success

Additional Training:

Additional training will be provided where required by staff within the section of Health Service Research, ScHARR. This may be statistical support for secondary data analysis or support to design survey questionnaire or interview schedules.

Ethical Approval:

Secondary data analysis will already include ethics approval - although use of other methods may include the need for UREC approval.

Venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk-assessment

Main Supervisor:

Professor Steve Goodacre

s.goodacre@sheffield.ac.uk

Second Supervisor:

Sue Mason

Type of Project:

Clinical project - based in the clinical environment with patients/including service evaluation, Qualitative Project/non-lab based - primarily using qualitative methods

Aims and Objectives:

This project offers a number of options related to existing and planned studies evaluating the use of risk-assessment to guide provision of venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis in hospital inpatients and people undergoing lower limb immobilisation for injury. Potential aims include: (1) Developing methods for presenting risk information to patients; (2) Developing efficient methods for collecting risk-assessment data; (3) Testing the validity of using routine data sources to identify VTE events.

Research Methodology:

Health services research methods will be used, depending upon the aim of the project, and may include qualitative evaluation using semi-structured interviews with patients or quantitative evaluation using routine NHS data sources and retrospective hospital record review.

Expected Outcome:       

The outcome will depend upon the specific project but could include development of a clinical decision aid for patients or development of efficient research methods to be used in a future national evaluation of VTE risk-assessment tools in hospital inpatients or people with lower limb immobilisation due to injury.

Additional Training:

The student will be based in the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) and will receive training in health service research methods according to the project aims, including statistics, routine data analysis and qualitative research methods.

Ethical Approval:

Original research involving human tissues/human participants and/or patient details and information - UREC or NHS REC ethics approval needed.

Prehospital Early Warning Scores for Sepsis

Main Supervisor:

Professor Steve Goodacre

s.goodacre@sheffield.ac.uk

Second Supervisor:

Gordon Fuller

Type of Project:

Clinical project - based in the clinical environment with patients/including service evaluation, Qualitative Project/non-lab based - primarily using qualitative methods

Aims and Objectives:

This project offers a number of options related to the PHEWS study (Pre-Hospital Early Warning for Sepsis), which is evaluating the use of prehospital early warning scores to guide management of patients with suspected sepsis. Potential aims include: (1) Evaluating the impact of different definitions of sepsis upon the accuracy and usefulness of early warning scores; (2) Exploring clinician perspectives of triage and treatment of suspected sepsis.

Research Methodology:

Health services research methods will be used, depending upon the aim of the project, and may include qualitative evaluation using semi-structured interviews with clinicians or quantitative evaluation using routine NHS data sources and retrospective hospital record review.

Expected Outcome:       

The outcome will depend upon the specific project but would be expected to lead to an improved understanding of the management of sepsis and publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Additional Training:

The student will be based in the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) and will receive training in health service research methods according to the project aims, including statistics, routine data analysis and qualitative research methods.

Ethical Approval:

NHS REC approval in place.