National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) News This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Digital technologies and telepsychiatry, NIHR
The following table is divided into four: Table A is short and concise, and is designed for quick reference, with practical advice summarised briefly as a checklist for busy clinicians. Tables B, C and D have full detail and cover the different implications and possibilities for using telepsychiatry in general, in children and adolescents and in older adults. In Tables B, C and D, questions are arranged in groups covering topics listed under headings. Readers can, of course, focus only on areas of interest, but we would suggest that you read the answers to all questions within a group as the answers complement and overlap ...
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - August 17, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news

Early warning scores used in hospitals must be based on sound science, NIHR (published 14th August 2020)
An expert commentary is provided on a review that found many early warning scores are based on flawed research. NEWS 2, endorsed by NHS England and NHS Improvement, is a modification of the original NEWS; the study found the latter was not derived using robust statistical methods. (Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH))
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - August 17, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news

High rates of delirium, persistent fatigue and post-traumatic stress disorder were common after severe infection in previous coronavirus outbreaks, NIHR
Little is known about the mental health consequences of severe COVID-19 illness because it is caused by a new coronavirus. Previous outbreaks caused by other coronaviruses (severe acute respiratory syndrome, SARS, and Middle East respiratory syndrome, MERS) may provide insights into ongoing problems after recovery from severe illness. Researchers looked at reports of psychiatric problems during SARS and MERS outbreaks and compared this to early data from the COVID-19 pandemic. Delirium (sudden confusion) was common while patients were in hospital with any of the coronavirus infections (SARS, MERS or COVID-19). Later, once ...
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - August 13, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news

Multimillion investment in new research projects to investigate higher COVID-19 risk among certain ethnic groups, NIHR
Six new projects to improve our understanding of the links between COVID-19 and ethnicity have been funded by the NIHR and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). These projects will seek to explain and mitigate the disproportionate death rate from COVID-19 among people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, including BAME health and social care workers. (Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH))
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - August 13, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news

Cochrane Acute and Emergency Care Network seeks Network Support Fellow
Contract: Fixed-term, 12 monthsHours: Full time, 37.5 per week (part time considered)Salary: £31,365 - £37,890 per annum pro rata (dependent on experience)Position Closing: 20 August 2020Cochrane Acute and Emergency Care Network is seeking a Network Support Fellow. Cochrane is a global, independent network of health practitioners, researchers, patient advocates and others, responding to the challenge of making vast amounts of research evidence useful for informing decisions about health. We do this by synthesizing research findings to produce the best available evidence on what can work, what might harm and where more ...
Source: Cochrane News and Events - August 6, 2020 Category: Information Technology Authors: Rachel Klabunde Source Type: news

Multimillion investment in six new research projects to investigate COVID-19 and ethnicity
Six new projects to improve our understanding of the links between COVID-19 and ethnicity have been funded by UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) Medical Research Council (MRC) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). (Source: Medical Research Council General News)
Source: Medical Research Council General News - July 28, 2020 Category: Research Source Type: news

Can wearables like Fitbit devices be used to help detect COVID-19?
(NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre) The COVID-Collab research team at King's College London have launched a free mobile app [Android] [iOS] which will allow scientists to investigate the use of wearable devices and smartphones for digital detection of COVID-19, to understand how it spreads and how the pandemic affects people's mental and physical health. (Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health)
Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health - July 24, 2020 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news

Collecting rapid COVID-19 intelligence to improve primary care response, NIHR
Project aims To identify the changing demands on GP practices across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire during the COVID-19 pandemic and investigate common challenges and innovative solutions that practices have devised to cope with this. Anticipated impacts The project will help us understand how GP practices respond to the pandemic in the way they manage demand and implement alternatives to face-to-face consultations. This information will be rapidly fed back to various practices, commissioners and policy makers to help them to support GP practices in safely delivering care to patients during the curren...
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - July 23, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news

Drug users who lack access to clean water use dangerous alternatives to prepare injections, NIHR Alert
Expert commentary is provided on study exploring how people who inject drugs typically prepare injections, including when they are homeless. Researchers found many had resorted to using puddle water, alcoholic drinks and even saliva when unable to access clean water for injecting (Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH))
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - July 22, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news

First trial results show UK coronavirus vaccine produces a strong immune response, NIHR
A new experimental vaccine for coronavirus causes induces strong immune responses in both parts of the immune system and cause few mild side effects, in promising results from a trial funded and supported by the NIHR. The results of the early trial, published in The Lancet, show that the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine generated strong immune responses in both parts of the immune system, activating white blood cells that can attack cells infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and antibodies that find and attack the virus when it ' s circulating in the blood or lymphatic system. The researchers also found that immune responses may be...
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - July 21, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news

COVID-19 & clinical management of mental health issues: Evidence-based guidance (updated 15th July 2020), NIHR
COVID-19 is spreading fast around the world. Mental health patients and their clinicians need rapid access to evidence-based information to help to guide their shared decision-making. Here, we summarise the best available clinical guidelines about key COVID-19 questions that frontline mental health professionals are facing every day. This is not a legal or NHS approved document, but we have followed a rigorous methodological approach to search and select the information needed to answer these specific questions. This webpage is a guidance for busy clinicians, organised around specific clinical questions and derived from e...
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - July 16, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news

World-leading study into long-term health impacts of COVID-19 launched by UKRI and NIHR
Today, UKRI and NIHR are announcing£8.4 million funding for one of the world’s largest studies into the long-term physical and mental health impacts of coronavirus on hospitalised patients. (Source: Medical Research Council General News)
Source: Medical Research Council General News - July 6, 2020 Category: Research Source Type: news

COVID-19 & clinical management of mental health issues, NIHR
Here, we summarise the best available clinical guidelines about key COVID-19 questions that frontline mental health professionals are facing every day. This is not a legal or NHS approved document, but we have followed a rigorous methodological approach to search and select the information needed to answer these specific questions. (updated 29th June) (Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH))
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - July 3, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news

Obese BME people at 'higher-risk' of contracting COVID-19
(National Institute for Health Research) Obese people among black and minority ethnic communities (BME) are at around two times higher the risk of contracting COVID-19 than white Europeans, a study conducted by a team of Leicester researchers has found. (Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases)
Source: EurekAlert! - Infectious and Emerging Diseases - July 3, 2020 Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: news

Rapid antigen detection and molecular tests for group A streptococcal infections for acute sore throat: systematic reviews and economic evaluation, NIHR
Review of 21 point-of-care tests (POCTs) identified 38 studies of clinical-and 3 studies of cost-effectiveness, and found sensitivity and specificity estimates are promising, but there is little information to establish most accurate PCOT in primary/secondary care settings. (Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH))
Source: Current Awareness Service for Health (CASH) - July 2, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news