Developing strategies to improve demand and flow in the UK urgent and emergency care system.
This PhD opportunity is to join an established research programme in the Centre for Urgent and Emergency Care (CURE), within the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), University of Sheffield. One of the nine departments in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health at the University of Sheffield, ScHARR comprises 4 academic sections (Design Trials and Statistics, Health Economics and Decision Science, Health Services Research and Public Health), and a professional services section (Central Resources Group).
The successful candidate will join the Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) research theme, within the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration for Yorkshire and Humber (ARC). The NIHR ARC YH is an important programme of applied research delivered through a partnership of organisations, including NHS organisations, local authorities, universities, third sector organisations and industry. The UEC theme collaborates with the ARC YH themes of healthy childhood, mental health and multimorbidity and older people. To find out more visit: https://www.arc-yh.nihr.ac.uk/what-we-do/urgent-care
The aim of the Urgent and Emergency Care Theme is to deliver improvements to demand and flow through the UEC system using a learning health systems approach, prioritising outcomes important to patients and providers and building on a track record of delivery and impact in this area of national NHS priority. The research theme has developed particular expertise in curating and analysing a large regional routine linked UEC dataset (CUREd) which has health and social care data from a number of providers (including 999, NHS111, acute hospital and health and social care). This dataset provides a unique resource to utilise with our key stakeholders to build collaborations with NHS providers and answer key research UEC priorities in the region and nationally. The successful candidate will be expected to utilise this resource as part of their research. Research training can be provided to develop the necessary analytic and computational skills. To find out more visit:
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/scharr/sections/hsr/cure/projects/chc/accessing_data
The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work alongside the UEC Theme team, led by Professor of Emergency Medicine, Suzanne Mason and comprising theme researchers, clinical academics, data managers and analysts and statisticians. The theme is developing research priorities for the five year programme of research and projects are currently ongoing in a number of priority areas designed to address key issues of demand management in UEC. These include but are not restricted to the following:
A. Analyse routine data sets to develop and test algorithms which will identify and reduce avoidable hospital admissions and improve management of patients with long lengths of stay in hospital. Identify variation in practice in key patient groups such as care home residents and test possible solutions to improve care.
B. Continue our nationally renowned work on low acuity ED attendances. Implement and test technological solutions which will enable patients with low acuity conditions to access the right level of UEC and thus reduce strain on emergency departments.
C. Develop interventions which will reduce avoidable ambulance journeys and crowding in Emergency Departments. For example in palliative care patients, develop, evaluate and test methods that will minimise unnecessary and distressing journeys for patients at the end of life using palliative care data linked to CUREd data.
D. Modelling and testing alternatives that will improve flow in the UEC system. we will model methods of optimising flow within the UEC system through generating hypotheses for testing leading to local service transformation.
Entry Requirements:
Candidates must have a first or upper second class honors degree, a master's degree and/ or significant research experience and have an interest in analysing large datasets using statistical and/or computational methods. The studentship may be of particular interest to those with a background in health informatics / data analytics.
Proposed start date: October 2020
Application deadline: 31st July 2020
Enquiries:
Interested candidates should in the first instance contact (Colin O'Keeffe, c.okeeffe@sheffield.ac.uk, 0114 222 0780)
How to apply:
Please complete a University Postgraduate Research Application form available here: www.shef.ac.uk/postgraduate/research/apply
Please clearly state the prospective main supervisor in the respective box and select ScHARR as the department.
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