Institute for Health and Care Improvement
Advancing policy and practice
in health and social care
Research theme.
This theme addresses the challenges and dilemmas associated with professional practice, the formulation and enactment of policy, and the health and wellbeing of those working in health and social care.
Our current projects include:
Experiences and perceptions of First Contact Practitioners in primary care
The NHS places advanced practice roles at the heart of many current innovations in healthcare delivery. The Advanced Healthcare Practice research group is conducting research to understand how clinicians are developing from more traditional professional roles into that of advanced practitioners.
'The experiences/perceptions of First Contact Practitioners in primary care - a systematic review' is aiming to review the current evidence into how clinicians experience the transition into newly developed advanced practice roles in primary care. The results from this review will inform how we target primary research studies into understanding how these advanced practitioners are managing their roles and what impact this is having on patient care and clinical pathways.
For further information email Dr Jon Thompson.
Feasibility of implementing a supervised exercise programme for people with intermittent claudication
Lower-limb peripheral artery disease is a type of cardiovascular disease in which the blood vessels (arteries) that carry blood to the legs and feet are hardened and narrowed or blocked by the build-up of fatty plaques (called atheroma). The most common symptom of peripheral arterial disease is intermittent claudication, which is muscle pain or discomfort in the legs and/or buttocks brought on by walking and relieved within minutes on rest. Supervised exercise therapy is a safe, effective and low-cost intervention for improving health outcomes in people with intermittent claudication. Clinical guidelines advocate exercise as a first-line intervention. Unfortunately, access to supervised exercise programmes is highly variable across the United Kingdom.
York St John University are collaborating with York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to establish the York Claudication Exercise Service. Eligible patients will be offered 2, 60-minute supervised exercise classes each week for 12 weeks. This research project will investigate the feasibility of implementing this service, its effects on patient outcomes (for example, walking ability and quality of life), and if it represents good value for money.
For further information contact Professor Garry Tew.
York and Scarborough PAD Research Database
The aim of this project is to establish a peripheral artery disease (PAD) research database for York and Scarborough NHS Trust. All patients with PAD at the Trust will be asked to give consent for their demographic, clinical and laboratory data to be recorded and stored. This will provide a data-rich resource that will allow a broad range of research questions to be explored, including those related to treatment effectiveness, long-term outcomes, and patient experience. The database will also assist with the evaluation of the York Claudication Exercise Service, which is being delivered at York St John University.
The project is funded by an Elsie May Sykes Research Award. The lead site and sponsor is York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Professor Garry Tew is Academic Lead for the database.
