Research Committee Report

RESEARCH COMMITTEE REPORT October 2015

General Business  The chief successes of 2015 have been securing funding for the second PE survey and being named as a collaborator on a major NIHR funding grant  The Committee passed the Standard Operating Procedure, making its conduct more consistent and transparent.

A. CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS 1. Pulmonary Embolism Survey - received £40 800 from Daachi Sankyo to support the conduct of a second survey looking at the variability in care of PE in the UK. - SAM received £6000 directly, with the rest going to PH Associates to support the running of the survey - currently have over 100 responses, with the survey due to close soon - early results suggest that NICE guidelines have driven improvements in the management of patients with suspected PE

2. SAMBA - yet another increase in numbers, with 90 units participating - Chris Subbe and Ivan Le Jeune to present preliminary analysis at the Conference - added items of interest this year were ‘family and friends’ and referrals to specialists

3. NIHR Studies - SAM has been included as a co-applicant or collaborator on 3 NIHR studies this year - the ARK project, which seeks to look at antibiotic conservation in the acute setting and is led by Oxford University, has been granted £3M. SAM has agreed help recruit AMUs to act as study sites. - the PEARL project, led by Julian Bion and aimed at improving communication with patients and their families, was invited to resubmit following protocol revisions. SAM was asked to help recruit AMU study sites and Paul Sullivan, a Research Group member, was invited to represent the Acute Medicine perspective on the study Steering Group - two studies were submitted in conjunction with the UK Clinical Infection Research Group for studies on the use of fosfomycin in pyelonephritis. Both studies were unsuccessful. - these approaches demonstrate that the SAM Research Committee is beginning to be recognised as a conduit for research in Acute Medicine.

4. Adolescents and Young Adults - an RCP toolkit has been authored by Lorraine Albon, Louella Vaughan and Helena Gleeson (lead of the RCP Adolescent and Young Adult Working Group). This is due for release later this year. - further discussions have been had about research in this area, although no decisions have been made as yet

5. Safer At Home - following the SAMsterDAM Research Day, an international group has coalesced around the investigation of hospital readmissions - the group is led by Chris Subbe and Prabath Nanayakkara (Amsterdam), with the support of the SAM Research Group and the Dutch Society for Acute Medicine (DAM) - it has been agreed that while the SAM Research Group will support the group, an individual projects that are to be presented to the wider SAM community must go through the Committee SOP prior to endorsement - it is expected that the CURIOSA study will be launched later this year, with invitations for AMUs to join

6. Atrial Fibrillation - John Soong is leading another ‘Day in the Life’ one day snapshot audit of the care of AF. - it has been agreed that this will be done in conjunction with the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and DAM - an appropriate day needs to be decided for the study and is likely to be early next year

7. Surveys - SAM was approached by several outside organisations to advertise practice surveys - responses to these are increasingly disappointing, with the British Society of Microbiologists’ OPAT survey receiving only 10 responses from SAM members - it was also substantially more difficult to recruit respondents for the PE survey - what can be done to promote participation in surveys needs to be considered

B. POTENTIAL PROJECTS 1. Stress in Acute Physicians. Juline Smit has expressed interest in work around this topic, previously raised by Christopher Adcock. It has been suggested that energies initially be directed towards raising awareness, before embarking on a larger project. 2. 3Ps and a Pod. Anita Banerjee has a long-term interest in better care for pregnant patients. The inclusion of questions around maternal care has been agreed for SAMBA next year. 3. Patient Experience and Social Network Mapping. Paul Sullivan has been working on two projects, which are likely to commence next year.

C. OTHER MATTERS 1. Supporting Paper Writing - the best posters at SAM last year were offered the support of a senior clinician with research experience to encourage publication - we received 3 initial responses to this offer, but no papers were ever actually produced - it was decided that this should be offered regularly, with the hope that it would eventually catch on

2. Links with the NIIHR and RCP - the Research Strategy outlined that forging better links with the NIHR and the RCP are crucial to the long-term success of the Committee - several meetings were held with senior NIHR staff, who agreed to assist the Research Committee where possible - members of the Emergency Care Network are coming to SAManchester to talk on accessing NIHR funding and support, with a view to holding workshops on this topic in future - a new web-page is to be set up, outlining the NIHR projects relevant to Acute Medicine that are still recruiting sites. This will take place over the next 12 months - John Wass, who was Academic Vice-President of the RCP has stepped down. Prof Margaret Johnson has replaced him. An approach will be made to her, so that the work started with Prof Wass might continue.