Call for Innovative Research Projects: 10k to Improve Patient Health

QResearch® has announced details of this year's QInnovation Award which recognises innovative research to improve the nation's health - with a grant of up to £10,000 for the winner. Now in its second year, the award is inviting entries from UK research teams involved in projects that are likely to benefit patients or improve clinical care in primary, secondary or community health.

Entries will be officially accepted from 1 November 2013 until 5pm on Friday, 31 January 2014.

Last year, a project led by GP Dr Tim Walter from Falkland Surgery in Newbury was one of two to win a £10,000 grant from QInnovation. Dr Walter's team looked at diabetes risk identification and intervention.

A judge on this year's panel, Dr Tim Walter has seen the benefit of QInnovation funding first hand. He said: "Thanks to QInnovation, together with support from the CCG, we were able to screen 113,000 patients for diabetes risk using www.qdiabetes.og and invite those identified to take part in a specially designed weight and fitness management course. Nearly a third responded. Using the research results we’ve been able to develop a step-by-step toolkit for CCGs to follow with at-risk patients that ultimately could help save lives. This can be found at www.predm.co.uk."

The winning team must include at least one member with postgrad research experience, and the research must be completed within 2 years of the award.

QResearch® is a not-for-profit partnership between EMIS Group - the UK leader in clinical IT systems for joined-up patient care - and The University of Nottingham.

The winning team will receive:

  • data from QResearch® - one of the largest GP research databases in the world
  • 2-3 days of time from an expert epidemiologist/statistician
  • Up to £10,000 to support the research or its dissemination

Dr Julia Hippisley-Cox, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and General Practice at Nottingham University and co-founder of QResearch® said: "We launched QInnovation last year hoping that it would stimulate research innovation in primary care. It certainly did that. This year, we are opening up the award to the wider healthcare landscape while retaining the core requirement - the project must demonstrate potential to deliver real clinical benefits and improve patient health. I have no doubt this year’s entries will be equally impressive."

Dr Shaun O'Hanlon, Chief Clinical Information Officer at EMIS, said: "Improved patient care is at the heart of everything EMIS does - it's my job to ensure our systems deliver clear clinical benefit. It is both exciting and a privilege to be involved with this award and recognise innovative research projects built around the same ethos."

To enter the award, go to http://www.qresearch.org/SitePages/QInnovation.aspx to complete the application form.

QResearch is a non-profit making venture run by the University of Nottingham in collaboration with EMIS Group plc. More than 750 EMIS practices, representing around 15 million patients, regularly contribute to the database. The system anonymises and uploads practices' clinical data to the central database. Then, to protect patient confidentiality, the data are further anonymised and the figures are totalled to produce data that are suitable for research.

The University of Nottingham, described by The Sunday Times University Guide 2011 as ‘the embodiment of the modern international university', has 42,000 students at award-winning campuses in the United Kingdom, China and Malaysia. More than 90 per cent of research at The University of Nottingham is of international quality, according to the most recent Research Assessment Exercise. The University aims to be recognised around the world for its signature contributions, especially in global food security, energy & sustainability, and health.

EMIS Group plc is the UK leader in clinical IT systems for joined up patient care.

Most Popular Now

New Training Year Starts at Siemens Heal…

In September, 197 school graduates will start their vocational training or dual studies in Germany at Siemens Healthineers. 117 apprentices and 80 dual students will begin their careers at Siemens...

Digital ECGs at Barts Health: A High-Imp…

Opinion Article by Dr Krishnaraj Sinhji Rathod, consultant in interventional cardiology, Barts Health NHS Trust. Picture the moment. A patient in an ambulance, enroute to hospital with new chest pain. Paramedics...

New AI Tool Addresses Accuracy and Fairn…

A team of researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has developed a new method to identify and reduce biases in datasets used to train machine-learning algorithms...

Global Study Reveals How Patients View M…

How physicians feel about artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine has been studied many times. But what do patients think? A team led by researchers at the Technical University of Munich...

Study Sheds Light on Hurdles Faced in Tr…

Implementing artificial intelligence (AI) into NHS hospitals is far harder than initially anticipated, with complications around governance, contracts, data collection, harmonisation with old IT systems, finding the right AI tools...

Using Deep Learning for Precision Cancer…

Altuna Akalin and his team at the Max Delbrück Center have developed a new tool to more precisely guide cancer treatment. Described in a paper published in Nature Communications, the...

New AI Approach Paves Way for Smarter T-…

Researchers have harnessed the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle one of the most complex challenges in immunology: predicting how T cells recognize and respond to specific peptide antigens...

Study Used AI Models to Improve Predicti…

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a complex condition marked by a gradual decline in kidney function, which can ultimately progress to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Globally, the prevalence of the...

AI-Powered CRISPR could Lead to Faster G…

Stanford Medicine researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to help scientists better plan gene-editing experiments. The technology, CRISPR-GPT, acts as a gene-editing “copilot” supported by AI to help...

Groundbreaking AI Aims to Speed Lifesavi…

To solve a problem, we have to see it clearly. Whether it’s an infection by a novel virus or memory-stealing plaques forming in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, visualizing disease processes...

AI Spots Hidden Signs of Depression in S…

Depression is one of the most common mental health challenges, but its early signs are often overlooked. It is often linked to reduced facial expressivity. However, whether mild depression or...