Click here to download the latest STarT Back newsletter, which provides an update on the progress/rollout of the STarT Back tool - a CLAHRC WM supported project from Keele University.

A new book on safer healthcare has recently been published, and is freely available online. Safer Healthcare: Strategies for the Real World sets out a system of safety strategies and interventions for managing patient safety on a day-to-day basis and improving safety over the long-term. These strategies are applicable at all levels of the healthcare system from the frontline to the regulation and governance of the system. The authors argue that we need to see safety through the patient’s eyes, to consider how safety is managed in different contexts and to develop a wider strategic and practical vision in which patient safety is recast as the management of risk over time. We need to make more use of strategies concerned with detecting, controlling, managing and responding to risk. Strategies for managing safety in highly standardised and controlled environments are necessarily different from those in which clinicians constantly have to adapt and respond to changing circumstances.

Prospect magazine have recently published an article by Prof Swaran Singh, University of Warwick, on his experiences and thoughts on racism in Britain. It can be viewed online at: http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/features/immigration-i-dont-think-britain-is-racist

Salaried Studentship Opportunities at Keele University

2x Research Associates / Fellows (non-clinical) RE16/05
Fixed term, 3 years FT or 6 years PTE. Closing date 04 March 2016
http://tinyurl.com/RE16-05

2x Clinical Research Associates / Fellows RE16/06
Fixed term, 3 years FT or 6 years PTE. Closing date 18 March 2016
http://tinyurl.com/RE16-06

Trainees and young researchers are invited to participate in a five-day working conference and summer school on the ethical issues posed by randomised trials in development economics and health policy, to be held on 20-24 June 2016 at Brocher Foundation villa in Hermance, Switzerland.

Prof Tom Marshall, CLAHRC WM Co-Director, will be giving his inaugural lecture on Wednesday 2 March, 16:30-17:30, at the Leonard Deacon Lecture Theatre, University of Birmingham – 'The Knowable and the

Unknowable: Reflections on Health Services Research'. A fundamental difference exists between clinical practice and science. Clinicians diagnose, make prognosis and decide on treatment, generating apparent certainty from uncertain symptoms and situations. But science is driven by doubt. In this lecture, Professor Marshall will explore some of the paradoxes of knowledge and its absence in relation to his own research.

CLAHRC WM are hosting an event on Tuesday 7 June 2016 around youth mental health. It will be an opportunity to share views on youth mental health and how services may be improved, as well as getting the latest information about the on-going transformation of youth mental health services in Birmingham and West Midlands. There will be live entertainment, guest speaker Rt Hon Norman Lamb, and ample opportunities to network with people passionate about youth mental health.

For more information, and to book a free ticket, please visit: https://shoutoutfymh.eventbrite.co.uk Or for enquiries email: shoutoutfymh at warwick dot ac dot uk

Minister for Life Sciences George Freeman MP hosted the first NIHR Parliamentary Day in Westminster recently. MPs and Peers were invited to learn about the world-class research funded and supported by the NIHR, and how the NIHR has transformed the research environment in England over the past ten years. Click here for more information.

Work by members of CLAHRC WM Theme 3 has recently been featured on the homepage of the Cochrane Library – Dietary fibre for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. The authors (Hartley, May, Loveman, Colquitt, Rees) found that there was a beneficial reduction in total cholesterol and LDL ('bad') cholesterol, and diastolic blood pressure with increased fibre intake. The full paper can be read online.

On the 20th January 2016, CLAHRC WM hosted the first inter-CLAHRC Health Economics for Service Delivery Research workshop at Kings College London’s Strand Campus. The event aimed to allow CLAHRCs to share their plans and activities in developing the methodology of health economics for service delivery research, and highlight any particular challenges and methodological issues.