A team of researchers led by the University of Birmingham have found that targeting as few as 1 in 12 adults for a heart check-up achieves most of the benefits of mass screening at a fraction of the cost.

Read the full article published in BJGP here

Patients’ and clinicians’ views on the optimum schedules for self-monitoring of blood pressure: a qualitative focus group and interview study

Sabrina Grant, James A Hodgkinson, Siobhan L Milner, Una Martin, Alice Tompson, FD Richard Hobbs, Jonathan Mant, Richard J McManus, Sheila M Greenfield

DOI: 10.3399/bjgp16X686149 Published 1 November 2016

An analysis of the records of UK patients who had experienced a stroke has found that over half of those who should get drugs to prevent strokes were not prescribed them.

The article was published in PLoS Medcine recently and featured on the home page at http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/

Read the full artcile here

Turner GM, Calvert M, Feltham MG, Ryan R, Fitzmaurice D, Cheng KK, Marshall T. Under-prescribing of Prevention Drugs and Primary Prevention of Stroke and Transient Ischaemic Attack in UK General Practice: A Retrospective Analysis. PLoS Med. 2016 Nov 15;13(11):e1002169. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1002169.

Theme 3 Prevention and Detection of Diseases based at University of Warwick led this study to evaluate the Coventry GP Alliance: Best Care, Anywhere - Integrating Primary Care in Coventry Programme, in collboration with University of Birmingham and Coventry University

Coventry and Rugby Clinical Commissioning Group (CRCCG) was recently awarded funds from the ‘Prime Minister’s GP Access Fund” (PMAF) to establish ‘Best Care, Anywhere’, integrating primary care in Coventry. The ‘Best Care, Anywhere’ project aims “to provide an integrated solution, improving primary care access and ensuring continuity of care through integrated pathways”. Three innovative primary care schemes were planned:

(1) Extended hours hub, (EHH)

(2) Primary care frailty team, (PCFT) and

(3) Primary care team in A&E treating ambulatory cases (GP in ED).

As the Better Care Anywhere team established these schemes, they commissioned a rigorous evaluation in order to inform the CCG on quality and service improvement provisions with the aim of improving access to primary care and overall service integration for seamless care.

The full report can be downloaded here

Almost 1 billion people are estimated to live in slum households, defined by UN Habitat as “a group of individuals that live under the same roof that lack one or more of the following conditions: access to improved water, access to improved sanitation, sufficient living space, durability of housing and secure tenure”.

Two Series papers discuss the social characteristics and health burdens of slums, and the particular opportunities that such neighbourhoods offer to improve the health of people who live there. The authors argue for an academic discipline of slum health to increase awareness about the challenges faced by people who live in slums and to develop solutions that improve their health.

Check out the all new CLAHRC Partnership Project's Database at http://www.clahrcprojects.co.uk/.

There are 13 national CLAHRC intitatives and today, on the 10/10/16, we are offically launching our NIHR 10@10 sucess document, showcasing CLAHRC case studies that have influenced health care practice or policy and have resulted in saving lives and making services more effective for patients and the public.

CLAHRC WM collaborators at Keele University have secured a prestigious award from Wellcome Trust to fund a PhD Programme for Primary Care Clinicians. The latest round of Wellcome PhD programme funding, builds on Wellcome’s five existing clinical PhD Programmes, and will being recruiting students this autumn to start in 2017. Information about how to apply to the programme will be available on the Keele University website in due course.

The CHAIN subgroup for the Self­Management Of Long­Term Conditions (SMOLTC) have recruited six new volunteer co­facilitators, including Magdalena Skrybant, CLAHRC WM PPIE Lead. For more information, please click here.

The HTA Programme have announced a new funding board due to its increased popularity. The role of the new board will be to assess applications submitted in response to NIHR­wide themed calls and evidence synthesis funding opportunities.

For more information, please click here.