At this year’s HSR UK conference we awarded our first Future Leaders in Health Services Research Awards, supported by Elsevier and the International Journal of Nursing Studies (IJNS). Judges from our Conference Committee had a tough job, with many brilliant full length presentations given this year. Three worthy winners were recognised for their research rigour, contribution, and presentation quality and took home a cash prize and year's subscription to IJNS.
We asked our winners to tell us more about their research, and what winning this Award means to them.
Arbaz Kapadi (University of Sheffield)
Hi everyone! I am Arbaz Kapadi, a final year PhD student from The University of Sheffield. I was really honoured to receive the Future Leaders in Health Services Research Award at this year’s conference.
My research explores service user involvement and co-production in healthcare quality improvement with the preliminary findings touching upon a number of challenges and calling for further attention on how service users can be more involved in the design and delivery of services. This is an area I am really passionate about and therefore it was pleasing to be recognised for this work and provides me with confidence that my research is timely and on the right track.
As this year’s conference demonstrated, there is such a strong drive and genuine enthusiasm for improvement of our health and social care services, and I would love to continue being part of this effort, beyond my doctoral study, using the skills and knowledge that I have gained.
Watch Arbaz’s presentation: For Whose Benefit? Service User Involvement, Co-Design and Quality Improvement in the NHS
Marina Soley-Bori (King’s College London)
I could not have hoped for a warmer welcome into the Health Services Research (HSR) community in the UK! After years in the US (attending AcademyHealth), I was eager to find a similarly vibrant conference to participate in, and I must say my first year at HSR UK did not disappoint! I am really honoured to receive the Future Leaders in Health Services Research Award. This recognition brings memories of my mentor and dissertation chair, Prof James Burgess. He introduced me to HSR from the lenses of health economics, encouraged me to apply for a PhD, and supported me throughout. His deep passion for HSR, boundless care for his students, and significant methodological contributions (recognised by the Burgess Methods Article-of-the-Year Award) continue to inspire me every day.
My research presentation aims to inform the discussion on how to improve healthcare delivery for individuals with multiple conditions. Based on 15 years of data, it identifies combinations of long-term conditions with the highest primary care needs. Our findings indicate that the clustering of alcohol dependence, substance dependence, HIV, and also the clustering of mental health conditions are associated with the highest increases in primary care demand as additional long-term conditions develop over time. Designing and implementing payment incentives in order to target primary care interventions to these individuals to prevent further acquisition of diseases may improve their health outcomes and reduce future primary care use. Colleagues interested in multimorbidity research or in the drivers of primary care consultations more generally may find our work particularly interesting!
We are currently exploring referrals to secondary care and we next plan to look at hospital use. We aim to characterise healthcare use and costs for patients with multimorbidity across the care continuum. I also hope to tackle similar research questions among children and young people. Multidisciplinary collaborations will be key to ensure our research contributes to the conversation on how to improve healthcare for people with multimorbidity. I hope to continue sharing our work at HSR UK 2022!
Watch Marina’s presentation: Longitudinal analysis of multimorbidity and primary care consultations: evidence from South London
Claudia Bull (Griffith University)
I am incredibly appreciative and excited to be one of the 2021 Future Leaders in Health Services Research Award winners. I ascribe to the belief that as researchers, our goal is to contribute positively to society through knowledge creation, dissemination, and implementation. To receive an award from my peers is a really nice affirmation that I am where I want to be and working towards that goal of creating positive change.
The research I presented at the HSR UK Conference described a systematic mixed studies review of emergency department patient experiences literature. This is one of the formative pieces of research in my PhD, and alongside qualitative interviews, describes the conceptual framework for a new Emergency Department Patient-Reported Experience Measure (ED PREM). The research I presented will be of interest to many – ED care providers, people who have experienced the ED environment, survey/ PREM developers and many more. I recommend viewing my presentation via the online platform.
My hope for the future is to submit my PhD within the next 18-months and continue to develop a research track record within the patient experience/ PREMs space. Once again, thanks to HSR UK for the opportunity to present at this years’ conference, and I look forward to seeing everyone again next year!
Watch Claudia’s presentation: A systematic mixed studies review of patient experiences in the Emergency Department
Congratulations to our three Award winners - we look forward to seeing what you do next!