We are glad to announce that an NIHR SiGNAL has been produced which cites work funded by CLAHRC WM. Please see here for a link to the SiGNAL.

Please feel free to come and listen to a talk by Julie Schmittdiel. Information for this is as follows:

Date: 16/05/2017

Time: 14:30

Venue: A041, WMS

A positon has become available in the CLAHRC WM Chronic Disease theme.

For further information about the post, please click here.

Birmingham Health Partners are hosting an event showcasing multidisciplinary research undertaken in the NHS in the West Midlands at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham on Friday 17 May 2017.

Come and join the West Midlands clinical academic careers event to celebrate the benefits of multidisciplinary research in the NHS.

This event will provide plenary sessions and workshops for aspiring researchers on developing their clinical academic careers and for NHS managers interested in embedding these careers within the health service.

We will also be showcasing the multidisciplinary research undertaken in the region with presentations and poster displays.

For more information, and to view the event programme, please click here.

The Society for Social Medicine has a number of different events coming up for which registration remain available. Please see below for further details on each:

Workshop applications still accepted for ASM 2017 - please see the website for further details.

SSM Mentoring - Training for MCRs and SCRs (14 June, 2017, London) - Places are limited so if you are MCR or SCR who is interested in receiving mentorship training, please request a place as soon as possible by emailing Kate Murray at Kate.Murray@hg3.c.uk

Health and Brexit: Advancing knowledge for population health after Brexit - 18 May, Wellcome Trust Collection, London. Please register your interest your interest for this here. You can also find more by viewing the poster here.

Book now for Systematic Reviews: A Kickstart (28 June 2017, Exeter) - For further details and to book your place please visit the website.

Last chance to book! Advanced Modelling Strategies Summer School (17-20 May 2017, Leeds). For further details and how to apply, please see here.

James McKendry, a current PhD student at the University of Birmingham, is seeking to find participants for his research project investigating the effect that lifelong exercise has on muscle mass and function to determine the extent to which it is preserved when compared to individuals of the same age that have led a much more sedantary lifestyle.

For more information, please contact James Mckendry on:

Email: Jxm965@student.bham.ac.uk

Tel: 07879332731

Please see here for poster and further details.

CLAHRC West Midlands together with CLAHRC Oxford has produced the first cross-CLAHRC BITE to showcase collaborative work.

This BITE summarises collaborative work, published in the journal Family Practice recently, and suggests that survival following a diagnosis of heart failure shows no signs of improvement.

Read the paper here

Read the cross-CLAHRC BITE here

• Study finds link between removal of both ovaries at the time of hysterectomy and premature death.

• Increase in incidence of heart disease and cancer, and of deaths from heart disease and cancer when ovaries were removed.

• More than 113,000 hysterectomy cases were studied and the ovaries were removed in about a third of these

• A video of Professor Lilford discussing the study is available on YouTube

Research conducted by Theme 2: Youth Mental Health, led by Professor Max Birchwood and colleagues showed that treatment delay for young people with mental health illness can be reduced by changing the way care is delivered for young people. Evidence generated by the collaborative team and, supported by the NIHR CLAHRC West Midlands initiative, inspired a complete redesign of services for young people in Birmingham between 0 and 25 years of age to improve access for all diagnoses.

Findings have been disseminated widely, including at a recent ‘Shout Out for Youth Mental Health’ to bring various stakeholders together to think about the future of mental health services and the event included young people, clinicians, policy makers and commissioners of services. The findings have further inspired other parts of the region (and country) to address service provision in their own constituencies.

In breaking news, we now hear that Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) have recommissioned their services, following a similar commissioning process and service model. A new contract has been awarded to a multi-agency collaboration led by South Staffordshire and Shropshire Foundation Trust (SSSFT) to transform emotional health and well-being services for those aged between 0-25 years across Telford and Wrekin and Shropshire from April 2017.

More details about the evidence leading to recommissioning of services in:

- Birmingham

- Telford & Wrekin and Shropshire

More details about the research underpinning these service transformations:

- Theme 2 - Prevention and Early Intervention in Youth Mental Health

- SUPER BITE (summary of evidence leading to the changes in Birmingham)

Led by Dr Sarah Damery, Theme 4 Reseach Fellow, has published today in BMJ Open showing that integrated care interventions can be effective in reducing hospital activity, but the evidence base is poor and suggests that transforming services to integrate health and social care may not be enough to meet national policy targets for halting the rise in hospital activity.

Read the full article, published today in BMJ Open here