Dr Ruth Strudwick chaired another thought-provoking research evening with talks from Occupational Therapist Kerry Micklewright, Diagnostic Radiographer Sunitha Sivarajah, Dietitian Kath Paterson and DrJohn Ford who is a Clinical Lecturer in Public Health.
Kerry Micklewright highlighted the importance of informal carers in Health and Social care and spoke about the opportunities to support this group better. Her talk “Occupational therapy interventions for informal carers and implications for carer support” described findings from a systematic review of published literature regarding the role of occupational therapists in interventions to support informal carers. The work has been presented at the Royal College of Occupational Therapists national conference and will be edited for publication in the near future.
Sunitha Sivarajah presented on ”Non-contrast Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) of the carotid artery” within the field of Diagnostic Radiography. Her study aimed to assess and compare the diagnostic accuracy of non-contrast MR angiograms and contrast enhanced angiograms to detect stenosis in the carotid artery. Sunitha discussed the merits of using each sequence and whether the administration of contrast could be minimised in practice. Her findings determined that evidence remains conflicting despite extensive research in this field, and that there are other considerations that merit further investigating.
Kath Paterson followed on with an update on a recent Short Course in Developing and Evaluating Complex Health Interventions which was partly funded through the CAHPR East Anglia bursary scheme. The course explored the implications of complexity and outlined public involvement for intervention development and evaluation. The three day course gave attendees insight to adapting evidence informed interventions for implementation in new contexts which Kath was able to apply to her own research. Figure shows the ADAPT process model, taken from BMJ 2021;374:n1679
Finally, DrJohn Ford presented a rapid evidence review of impact of AHPs on health inequalities on behalf of Public Health England. He highlighted that the pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing health and care inequalities and that there is an opportunity of allied health professionals to help address these.
He introduced the concept of defining health inequalities and in what context the existing literature could be reviewed. The first stage of the review concluded findings that were relevant to AHP settings on a patient and organisational level but also on a system level. The second stage of the review found evidence supporting AHP involvement in community engagement and empowerment to help reduce health inequalities and also highlighted the need for funding allocation at system level to support initiatives.
A fantastic range of topics at another successful CAHPR East Anglia Research Evening! Email Dr Ruth Strudwick (r.strudwick@uos.ac.uk) to join us for our next research event on Wednesday 13th of October 2021 at 5.30pm on Zoom. Keep up-to-date with the latest information, news and events via this website, on Twitter @CAHPRangliaeast and on Facebook.
