Prof Celia Brown, Professor of Medical Education at Warwick Medical School and part of ARC WM Research Methodology theme, has recently published a book for children, Vi and Vincent the Jibber Jabbers, explaining how vaccines work, and how they keep many people safe and healthy. It is available from 3 March 2023. Further information is available at: https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/vi-and-vincent-jibber-jabbersLink opens in a new window.

Statistical Process Control (SPC) charts are generic tools for Safety and Quality improvement. In Health Care they are the basis for improvement methods such as Plan-Do-Study-Act Cycles. In contrast to simple line charts, SPCs distinguish signal from noise. They therefore enable decision makers to identify where action is needed, and a recent trial in France shows that they improve safety for patients. Yet we had anecdotal evidence that SPC charts were not widely used in NHS organisations. Working with our local Academic Health Research Network (AHSN) we conducted a project to determine prevailing use of SPC methodology and, if necessary, improve uptake.

Researchers from ARC West Midlands, in collaboration with ARC East Midlands, have recently published a paper on examining organisational responses to performance-based financial incentive systems, using NHS staff influenza vaccination rates (2012/13-2019/20) as a case study.

Staniszewska, S., Hill, E.M., Grant, R. et al. Developing a Framework for Public Involvement in Mathematical and Economic Modelling: Bringing New Dynamism to Vaccination Policy Recommendations. Patient (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40271-020-00476-x

While the current COVID-19 pandemic has us focused on our vulnerability to communicable disease, it should also serve as a wake-up call to the cataclysmic impact that would befall the world if nuclear weapons were ever to be used again. Prof Lilford, colleagues from ARC WM, and Prof Andrew Futter (Professor of International Politics at University of Leicester), have recently published an article arguing that there is an urgent need for renewal of public education, interest, and activism in reducing nuclear dangers. It is available online in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. 2020; 76(5).

It has been widely reported that A&E attendance across the UK has decreased since the COVID-19 lockdown came into effect, with newspapers suggesting that this is especially the case for patients with heart attacks or strokes. Writing in the Lancet, Lumley-Holmes, et al. looked at callout figures across the West Midlands for these two conditions, and found that there was no significant change associated with lockdown. There was no evidence suggesting that people were reluctant to ring for an ambulance when they experienced heart attack or stroke symptoms.

Read more: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31031-X/fulltext

Lumley-Holmes J, Brake S, Docherty M, Lilford R, Watson S. Emergency ambulance services for heart attack and stroke during UK's COVID-19 lockdown. Lancet. 2020; 395: e93-4.

Corresponding author Richard Lilford. Richard Lilford is supported by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration West Midlands (ARC WM). Views expressed are not necessarily those of the National Health Service, the NIHR, or the Department of Health and Social Care.