Apps library is advance for a digital NHS

On Tuesday 10th April the NHS launched two new digital platforms: NHS Digital Apps Library and a Mobile Health space for developers on Developer.nhs.uk.

Discover A-EQUIP during the model’s dedicated awareness week

This week is a dedicated week of action to raise awareness of the new employer led model of midwifery supervision, A-EQUIP.

CATCH researcher, Dr Steve Ariss led the evaluation of the national pilot 'bridging programme' with colleagues from Nursing and Midwifery, the launch event for which will be held on Tuesday 28th March in Manchester.

This evaluation has been influential in the development of the new model and the legislation that will be going to Parliament in the spring.

More information about the A-EQUIP week of action can be found on the NHS England website here. The full blog post about the model can be found here.

Use the hashtag #A-EQUIP to join the conversation and find out how the model is working in practice at the seven pilot sites.

To find out more about this evaluation, please contact Laura Murray.

NHS Health apps: to inform or not to inform patient records?

Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has announced that data from approved health apps will inform personal health records directly as part of a large online services expansion.

 

To read more about this, please click here to view BBC article.

HS&DR - 08/1819/214: The Impact of Enhancing the Effectiveness of Interdisciplinary Working

Why are we asking for your actionable tools?

A project is being carried out at Sheffield Hallam University in conjunction with colleagues from CLAHRC YH, and is funded by NHS England to develop an online repository for actionable tools for active dissemination and implementation of research findings into practice. They are currently working with knowledge mobilisation experts linked to CLAHRC YH, NHS England,  practitioners and those responsible for professional development to derive a working definition of 'actionable tools', and are seeking out research outputs which could potentially be actionable tools. They will consult a governance team with end-user representation, to determine which candidate tools fulfil the criteria to be considered 'actionable' and hence can be included on the online repository.

The RAT Group have put forward some NIHR funded research outputs to be included.:

This paper is firmly directed at application of the principles: The ten principles of good interdisciplinary team practice.

The following is a resource that has been designed and used as an actionable tool:

InterdisciplinaryManagement Tool - Workbook (this is appendix #2 on the project page).

We have published an evaluation of the implementation of the tool:

Qualitative evaluation of the implementation of the Interdisciplinary Management Tool: A reflective tool to enhance interdisciplinary team work using Structured Facilitated Action Research for Implementation (SaFARI)

This project:

Secondary analysis and literature review of community rehabilitation and intermediate care: an information resource

Has a full report in the NIHR journals library.

Here are the chapters:

• Objective 1. To identify those patients most likely to benefit from intermediate care and those who would be best placed to receive care elsewhere
• Chapter 1. Which patients are most or least likely to benefit from intermediate care?
• Chapter 2. What factors are associated with increased hospital admissions for patients using intermediate care services? 
• Chapter 3. Factors predicting admission to institutional care among intermediate care service users 
• Chapter 4. What factors are associated with increased risk of mortality for intermediate care patients? 
• Objective 2. To examine the effectiveness of different models of intermediate care
• Chapter 5. What team-level factors are associated with the greatest benefits for patients in terms of health status? 
• Chapter 6. What is the cost-effectiveness of different models of care? 
• Objective 3. To explore the differences between intermediate care service configurations and how they have changed over time
• Chapter 7. How have intermediate care services changed over time? 
• Chapter 8. How have referral patterns changed over time and what is the relationship with patient outcomes? 
• Objective 4. Service toolkit
• Chapter 9. Development of a service toolkit to guide providers and commissioners of services

Each of these could provide evidence to inform actions for commissioners and service providers.

Notably, the NHS Benchmarking Network, National Audit of Intermediate Care (NAIC) (currently in its 5th year) has been using some of the recommendations from Objective 4 (especially the Therapy Outcome Measures), and automated data collection methods, which were pioneered as a result of continuation of this work.

King's Fund's response to the NHS Spending Review

To see their response, please click here.

PhD Studentship available - University of Birmingham

Where? University of Birmingham, Institute of Applied Health and Research
What? Helping preventable mortality measurements and interventions as part of the NIHR's CLAHRC West Midlands.

Requirements

• A medical doctor, or a first or upper second class honours degree in areas such as physical or social science, economics, mathematics, management studies; relevant degrees in other subjects may also be considered
• Additional relevant research experience or higher qualifications, and experience with the NHS would be preferred.

For further information about the PhD, please contact Dr Semira Manaseki-Holland (s.manasekiholland@bham.ac.uk; Tel 0121414533).

Formal applications require:
– CV to include the names and addresses of two referees (postal and email)
– Covering letter explaining why your experience makes you suitable for this PhD.
Please send your application to haps-pgr@contacts.bham.ac.uk by midday on 1st December 2015
Full time three years (envisaged start date February 2016)
Part time applications will also be considered up to a minimum of 50% time on project.
Please note closing date may close early if high number of applications received

Funding Notes
The University of Birmingham registration fee is covered for duration of 3 years for UK/EU students. You are not exempt from applying if you are an overseas student (non-EU), but you will be required to pay the difference in the Overseas registration fee
Stipend

Annual stipend of £16,000 (15/16), plus research expenses (travel and consumables)
The project information is also is on findaphd.com and can be accessed via this link.

Place based systems of care

Have you heard of these?
Are you interested in how place based systems of care could improve health and health care?

A recent King's Fund report entitled "Place-based systems of care: A way forward for NHS and England" discusses just this.

The report can be downloaded here.

NHS England on patients being experts of self care

Ho expert are patients when it comes to self care? 

NHS England's National Medical Director for Long Term Conditions considers how important it is to listen to, work with and help empower patients.

Click here to read more.