EPSRC 4-year Enhanced CASE PhD Studentship in Operational Research
Mathematical Modelling of the Diffusion and Adoption of Video Consultation Services through System Dynamics
School of Mathematics, Cardiff University and
TEC Cymru / Aneurin Bevan University Health Board
Supervisors: Prof Paul Harper, Dr Daniel Gartner and Dr Geraint Palmer (Cardiff University), Prof Alka Ahuja (TEC Cymru and Aneurin Bevan University Health Board)
TEC Cymru is a national digital transformation programme funded by Welsh Government and hosted within the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB). The aim of the programme is to enable socially isolating patients to continue their access to healthcare. This allows to provide a full range of health care teams and services such as nurses, consultants, GPs, outpatient clinics and therapies. To continue delivering care while minimising the transmission risk to all parties due to COVID-19 has been the objective and recent strategy. The video consultation of patients enables shielding healthcare practitioners to work from home, ensuring they continue to provide healthcare during the pandemic. TEC Cymru has successfully delivered pilots across several services to date.
This fully funded 4-year PhD studentship (with an annual enhanced stipend of circa. £18,500 and all PhD fees paid) will play a pivotal role in supporting TEC Cymru’s ambitions to further roll out an NHS Wales wide video-consultation service. However, the mechanisms that trigger the diffusion process of this technology has not yet been fully researched. System Dynamics (SD) modelling, as a possible research methodology, has been used to understand the diffusion behaviour in similar domains such as IT and innovations such as electronic health records and identification standards. Consequently, SD can be seen as an appropriate methodology for modelling the diffusion of telehealth care over time through the healthcare system.
Operational Research (OR) which includes SD have been successfully applied to a range of health and wellbeing services, and this PhD studentship is an exciting opportunity to develop novel system-wide OR models and approaches to help create a lasting impact that will deliver outcomes that really matter to patients and the public.
Digital enablers including TEC Cymru are pivotal in delivering new service models and the programme office will form part of the action to deliver “national standards for rapid evaluation of all innovation and improvement activity, using a value-based approach to measuring quality and outcomes”. Modelling how the dynamics of telehealth care will be adopted by their users (patients and clinicians) is a fundamental step to realising the strategy and will be the focus of this innovative PhD project. Specifically, you will:
- Assess the population health needs for telehealth care services carrying out geographical modelling including cluster analysis.
- Build a stochastic-dynamic model that mimics the geo-spatial diffusion of telehealth care.
- Verify the model with the clinical teams at TEC Cymru.
- Validate the model against data collected by the different Health Boards.
- Use the developed model to perform cost-benefit evaluations and to make recommendations on how to optimally roll out future services.
You will become part of an internationally-leading healthcare OR group, working with and supported by a large team of staff, fellow research students and our NHS partners. Our research has led to significant impact that has been recognised by several major awards including a Times Higher Educational Award for “Outstanding Contribution to Innovation and Technology”. The focus of the PhD also has natural synergies with the wider data science community across Cardiff University, so as well as joining a large team in the OR Group in the School of Mathematics, you will benefit from being a member of the Data innovation Research Institute (DIRI) community, of which the primary academic supervisor, Professor Harper, is co-Director. We are also highly connected to international research groups in our field, so you will benefit from dialogue with our international visiting partners, including opportunities to present at leading global conferences.
You will have immediate access to the necessary data, resources, and supervisory support in both the University and Health Board, ensuring that your research is both academically rigorous and has the potential to make significant real-world impact. We anticipate that you will spend typically one day per week at TEC Cymru as part of your research and meetings with health board staff, and certainly at minimum three months in total over the duration of the PhD on TEC Cymru premises, as per CASE award requirements. Within CVUHB, you will report directly to Professor Alka Ahuja, National Clinical Lead, TEC Cymru, and spend time with her team.
How to apply
Applicants should apply through the Cardiff University online application portal. Applicants should select Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics, with a start date of Oct 2021. In the research proposal section of your application, please specify the project title “Modelling the Reconfiguration of Acute and Community Health Services” and supervisor “Professor Paul Harper”. In the funding section, please specify that you are applying for advertised funding from EPRSC DTP.
Deadline for applications
Friday 20th August 2021.
Please include:
- a personal statement
- two completed references
- current academic transcripts
Academic criteria
A 2:1 Honours undergraduate degree or a master's degree in Mathematical Science / Operational Research or a related subject.
Applicants for whom English is not their first language must demonstrate proficiency by obtaining an IELTS score of at least 6.5 overall, with a minimum of 6.0 in each skills component (or equivalent qualification).
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