Quality of Research
Primary Care and Other Community Based Clinical Subjects
School of Medicine
Research Assessment Exercise (2008)
| Unit of Assessment | Staff submitted (FTE) | By percentage, research activity in the submission judged to reach quality standard | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Care and Other Community Based Clinical Subjects (B8) | 11.90 | 4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
UC |
| 5% | 60% | 30% | 5% | 0% | ||
(Overall quality profile in blocks of 5%)
Research Profile: Primary Care and Other Community Based Clinical Subjects
| Primary Care and Other Community Based Clinical Subjects | ||
|---|---|---|
| Institution | % Research 4* and 3* | |
| University of Birmingham | 85.00 | |
| University of Manchester | 85.00 | |
| University of Oxford | 80.00 | |
| University College London | 70.00 | |
| Keele University | 70.00 | |
| University of Aberdeen | 65.00 | |
| University of Bristol | 65.00 | |
| Cardiff University | 65.00 | |
| University of Dundee | 65.00 | |
| University of Nottingham | 50.00 | |
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Applied research of international quality is fundamental to improving individual and community health, as well as the health service. The Department of Primary Care and Public Health aims to promote well-being and dignity by reducing the population burden of disease and improving health care through high quality research, teaching, clinical service, and innovation and engagement. The establishment of the Clinical Epidemiology Interdisciplinary Research Group in 2007 has led to improved systems and research strategy, allowing us to capitalise on significant new areas for research funding in the UK.
Key recent successes include:
- The Wales School for Primary Care Research, a new partnership between the Universities of Cardiff, Swansea, Glamorgan and Bangor.
- The Building Blocks study to evaluate Family Nurse Partnership in England, a structured preventive programme for vulnerable young parents.
- DEPICTED - Development and evaluation of a psychosocial intervention for children and teenagers experiencing diabetes.
- PROTECT, a series of studies to improve recognition of physical child abuse.
- Grand Challenge, integrating cutting edge health informatics into clinical practice to improve patient outcomes and provide cost-effective healthcare solutions.
- Bresdex, a decision tool for women facing surgery in the early stages of breast cancer.
The Department has three major research themes: common infections; behaviour change and decision making; and aetiological epidemiology.
Cardiff leads international cutting-edge research in the field of common infections and antibiotic resistance. Current studies include GRACE (Genomics to combat Resistance against Antibiotics in Community acquired LRTI in Europe), a pan-European Network of Excellence, focusing on community-acquired lower respiratory tract infections; and CHAMP, which seeks to change behaviour towards a more prudent use of antibiotics.
Primary care is fundamental to a sustainable NHS.
Work in healthcare communication includes developing and applying the counselling method called Motivational Interviewing (MI), which helpspeople make ‘owned decisions’ about lifestyle to improve their health. Motivational Interviewing is now the standard of care in many settings around the world. The Department hosts the ‘Decision Laboratory’, known for its work on shared decision making; we have been key players in the International Patient Decision Aids Standards collaboration (IPDAS), and have developed interactive Decision Support Technologies (DSTs) including Prosdex, Bresdex, Quitex and AmnioDex, designed to help people face difficult health decisions.
Cohort studies are a key area of research growth. We host Biobank Cymru, the all-Wales contribution to the UK Biobank project, in which participants provide a blood sample and health information, and are then tracked over the next 30 years and more. UK Biobank will become an unparalleled source of vital information on the cause of a range of diseases including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, dementia, depression, arthritis, osteoporosis and many other life-threatening and debilitating conditions. Our research into early diagnosis and prevention of cancer in primary care is already informing improvements to service delivery.
Key on-going infrastructure grants include the Wales Cancer Trials Unit (WCTU), South East Wales Trials Unit (SEWTU) and the Clinical Research Collaboration Wales (CRC Cymru). These multidisciplinary units design, coordinate and implement studies of national and international clinical relevance.
Developing people is one of our highest priorities as this ensures we will, over the long term, generate even more research evidence that improves and saves lives. We have won Medical Research Council and Department of Health doctoral and post doctoral studentships and fellowships, and our postgraduate researcher students increased by 50% in the last year.