QMUL applicant Dr Ratna Sohanpal
Summary Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a public health problem, associated with socio-economic deprivation with significant burden to health services and patients and high morbidity and mortality. There is a move to embed remote technologies into all areas of medicine including, respiratory medicine. However, there is need to understand how to harness the opportunities available via technology, how to identify and address the challenges and how to recognise when remote delivery may be inadequate or inappropriate.
Aims
Method Qualitative research comprising of in-depth interviews among patients with COPD, their carers and health care professionals. A topic guide informed by the literature sought to explore:
Targets for reducing health inequalities and improved mortality and morbidity
QMUL Co-applicant Professor Steph Taylor Dr Liz Steed Dr Nina Fudge
Lead institution Queen Mary University London
QMUL applicant Dr Grace Okoli
Summary During the COVID-19 pandemic two-week wait referrals in England, UK, were reported to have decreased by up to 84%. This has been attributed to the reallocation of health resources to address prevention and treatment of those at risk or affected by COVID-19. There has also been public apprehension to present to their general practice with symptoms that can be associated with cancer during this time.
Aim The aim of this study is to understand how the incidence of TWW referrals were affected during the pandemic and isolate key, person- and practice- level, factors that could reinforce the resilience of this service.
Study design Retrospective cohort study using EMIS Web primary care data. The data will be comprised of records of approximately 60 million patients registered in approximately 2,000 general practices in the UK and comparison will be made with an multi-ethnic community in the London Borough of Lambeth.
Targets for reduced inequality and reduced mortality and morbidity
QMUL applicant Hajar Hajmohammadi
Summary To investigate the association between short and long-term air pollution exposure and the risk of developing SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease in the UK.
Aim to understand the relationship between air quality exposure and the risk of developing COVID-19 at the individual level in the UK. We will develop a multivariate logistic regression model to analyse the associations between long-term (10 years) and short-term (daily) exposure to two types of air pollution, Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and PM2.5, and risk of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity.
Methods Two main datasets used for this study are: 1) Longitudinal population-based cohort study of coronavirus disease in the UK population (COVIDENCE UK) and 2) high resolution annual average NO2 and PM2.5 concentrations. COVIDENCE UK is a nationwide population-based cohort study of coronavirus disease (COVIDENCE UK), launched on 1st May 2020. Participants were invited via a national media campaign to complete an online baseline questionnaire to capture information on potential symptoms of COVID-19 experienced.
Targets for reduced inequality, morbidity and mortality
QMUL Co-applicant: Chris Griffiths
lead institution UCL
Summary The NHS Long-Term Plan is underpinned by expectations of collaborative and integrated working in primary care. The opportunities and challenges presented by this policy’s expectations for collaborative and integrated working in practice are relatively unexplored. This review focuses on the working relationship between Community Pharmacy (CP) and General Practice (GP).
Aims To understand how, when and why working arrangements between Community Pharmacy and General Practice can provide the conditions necessary for optimal communication, decision-making, and collaborative and integrated working.
Method Over 15 months researchers will conduct a Realist Review which brings together evidence such as policy documents, NICE guidance, research documents, and debate articles to understand what helps and hinders collaborative and integrated work between Community Pharmacy and GPs. They will conducted a initial scoping review to identify a significant field of potentially relevant information focused mainly on the UK. Researchers will examine whether, why, how and to what extent CP-GP collaborative and integrated working practices support effective and equitable care delivery for patients.
Targets for reducing inequalities mortality and morbidity
QMUL Collaborator Nina Fudge
Lead institution Manchester University
Summary In recent years, the number of patients and their healthcare needs have grown faster than the number of General Practitioners (GPs). This has led to escalating workloads in general practice that have a negative impact on GP morale, well-being and recruitment and retention. Nationally reported data on appointments and other health outcomes convey only a partial account of GP work; many tasks cannot be captured in these datasets and the impact of responsibility for them is poorly understood.
In this study, we propose to qualitatively explore the nature and impact of 'hidden' GP work - i.e. work that escapes capture in existing datasets and that may not be considered as a necessary part of GP workloads. We will to engage with GPs and practice staff to refine qualitative research methods suitable for investigating the hidden work of GPs, look at the nature, extent and impact of GPs’ hidden work, and develop conversations about positive change in working practices.
1) to work with GPs and practice staff to identify which research methods are feasible, acceptable and productive in shedding light on hidden work,
2) to use these methods to discover the nature and impact of GPs’ hidden work, and
3) to invite GPs and practice staff to participate in a reflexive workshop for collective learning with potential for quality improvement.
Methods This qualitative study will include interviews with GPs, observations of the work GPs do which patients do not usually see, and other/innovative methods of gathering data. In each practice, we will arrange a reflexive workshop with GPs and staff members. Dates of study: 1 June 2022 -31 July 2023
Targets to reduce inequalities, mortality and morbidity
Research team: Dr Sharon Spooner University of Manchester (CI), Prof Deborah Swinglehurst QMUL (PI/lead at QMUL), Prof John Campbell University of Exeter, Ms Emily Fletcher University of Exeter, Prof Kath Checkland University of Manchester
Lead institution Oxford University
Summary The shift to remote consulting in UK general practice, using phone and video to help with infection control during the COVID 19 pandemic will have lasting impact on how primary care services are provided to patients and the public. At the moment it is unclear how decisions are made about which sort of consulting to use, and how to best organise and deliver these different types of appointment in general practice.
Aims To understand how, when, by whom and why decisions are made to offer different types of appointment and to consider the implications for the future organisation and delivery of general practice and primary care.
Methods The team will work in three practices to collect detailed data about consulting: (i) shadowing one GP and one receptionist/care navigator (one week) and then other members of the primary care team (second week) in each practice to gain first hand insights into the work they do and the decisions they make about consulting; (ii) talking with practice staff (e.g. receptionists, GPs, practice nurses) to understand their experience of remote consulting and their role in shaping decisions about the type of appointment offered; (iii) homing in on ten patients with complex needs and tracking their consulting activity over the previous 24 months. The team will work with three practices that are already part of the Remote by Default 2 study to collect data. Link to more information
Lead institutions: University of Leeds with Queen Mary University, London
Background Many intra-thoracic cancers remain diagnostic challenges, have similar presentations to other co-morbidities, are sometimes ‘easily missed’ in primary care and are often diagnosed at a late stage as result. However, we know that patients do experience symptoms and have detectable changes in blood and other biomarkers in the time prior to their diagnosis, creating a time window in which imaging or biomarker testing may facilitate earlier diagnosis.
Aims To publish the main findings of the two reviews in high-impact journals and publish a version of the findings for a lay audience. Findings will be disseminated at international conferences.
Methods To undertake two systematic reviews about detecting intra-thoracic cancers. The first will look at the role of imaging and the second the role of biomarkers in the detection of these cancers in primary care. These reviews will be carried out in parallel, with the Exeter researcher leading on the imaging review and the QMUL researcher leading on the biomarker review.
Targets to incorporate consideration of reducing inequalities, mortality and morbidity within this study
Lead institution Queen Mary University of London
Summary Identification of people infected with blood borne viruses remains a challenge. Up to 1:20 people with HIV remain undiagnosed, and almost half of people with hepatitis B or hepatitis C are unaware of their infection. Health inequalities are widening across societal groups. New approaches are urgently needed to improve identification and specialist referral of people with blood-borne viruses.
Aim To improve identification and referral systems for people with blood-borne virus infections.
Methods In the first developmental phase
In the second evaluative phase
Targets to reduce inequalities, morbidity and mortality
QMUL Co-applicants Chris Griffiths John Robson Dominik Zenner
Summary There is strong interest in the relationship between short-term and long-term air pollution exposure and human health. A variety of studies focus on mortality and hospital admission as a result of long or short-term air pollution exposure. However, less severe health effects such as respiratory conditions requiring primary care management are rarely considered in the literature, likely to be the result of limited access to primary care clinical and prescribing data, despite the major health and economic burden resulting.
Aim To learn more about the link between short-term and long-term air pollution exposure and asthma exacerbations treated in primary care. In addition to investigate how COVID-19 pandemic influenced this connection.
Methods Use data from the longitudinal population-based cohort study of coronavirus disease in the UK population (COVIDENCE UK (https://www.qmul.ac.uk/covidence/)), launched on 1st May 2020, and link those data to the high-resolution (25m x 25m) Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particle (PM2.5, particles with diameter less than 2.5 mm) outdoor concentrations from a land-use regression model.
Researchers will estimate the risk of developing COVID-19 infection associated with poor air quality, as well as the extent to which changes in the concentration of NO2 and PM2.5 over the two major lockdown periods modified any adverse association.
QMUL Co-investigator Dr John Robson and Professor Christopher Griffiths
Lead institution Queen Mary's University of London
Summary Ovarian cancer is the 6th most common cause of death from cancer in UK women. Most ovarian cancers are not detected until the disease is advanced and harder to treat. Ovatools is new age- and CA125-based risk models which estimate the probability of ovarian cancer in primary care. Ovatools exhibited excellent diagnostic performance in internal validation and are validated using external datasets.
Methods
The team proposes to develop a decision analytic model of the ovarian cancer diagnosis and treatment pathway to assess the value of integrating Ovatools in primary care. This analytical framework will relax the homogeneous population assumption in previous health economic assessments of the ovarian cancer pathway used by NICE, and enable integration of patient age, CA125 level and estimated risk considerations informed by their previous work and the linked patient data (i.e. use of further diagnostic tests, stage at cancer diagnosis, subsequent cancer treatment modalities and survival).
QMUL Co-investigators Professor Fiona Walter, Professor Borislava Mihaylova
Lead Institution Queen Mary University of London
Summary Air pollution impairs children’s brain development, increasing risk of behavioural and mental health problems, and harming life chances. We urgently need to find out whether improving air quality can prevent harm to children’s developing brains. In this study the authors seek to exploiting these interventions to address whether reductions in traffic improve various indicators of how well children’s brains work: from response time, to problem solving and memory recall. In addition, the team will look at general mental wellbeing, such as feelings of isolation or anxiety to see how these are affected by poor air quality.
Methods The design is a prospective parallel cohort study, with repeated assessments of:
Data extracted from the children’s Early Years Foundation Stage Profile assessments carried out at the end of reception years
QMUL Co-investigator Professor Christopher Griffiths