Improving the understanding of back-pain by combining patient generated data with health-records.

The primary care PPIE team have purchased 30 bespoke vidibooks.

The vidibooks aim to increase research awareness and improve patients understanding about health research through watching four, short videos. They will allow for bite-size learning which has been proven to improve engagement and improve mobility of information as they can be used in any venue. Vidibooks are fully portable so can be used in different practices, venues and community settings, without the need for WIFI or licences.

Researchers at the Universities of Bristol and Southampton are looking for GPs and nurse practitioners nationwide to help recruit 399 children to a study comparing antibiotic treatments for Acute Otitis Media with discharge (AOMd).

Behavioural counselling with intensive follow-up for obesity is effective, but in resource-constrained primary care settings briefer approaches are needed. The aim of the study was to estimate the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an internet-based behavioural intervention with regular face-to-face or remote support in primary care, compared with brief advice.

 (www.joindmentiaresaerch.nihr.ac.uk) is still being widely promoted across the UK and members from the West Midlands primary care Patient Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) team continues to actively develop and support  new ways of approach to spread the word to a wider audience, and increase the volunteer recruitment rate for the region 

Only two out of 100 PRAs in the West Midlands region are volunteering in primary care. 75 are volunteering with secondary care trusts, 15 with the Young Persons Advisory Group and 10 with the CRN West Midlands. Updates indicate only a possible handful of PRAs volunteering in primary care elsewhere in the country

If you are not involved as a practice in clinical research then the terms FAST, TASMINH4, HEAT, CHESS, CANDID, iWOTCH, and OPTiMISE will have little meaning other than a bunch of randomly assembled , vaguely incomprehensible words, with no apparent connection.

However, these are the cleverly constructed acronyms that represent just a few of the many clinical trials that we at Westside Medical Centre have been involved in.