Our Research
Find out about our research and research themes
NIHR PSRCs are partnerships between the NHS/universities in England to support patient safety research. The Collaborations aim to develop, validate and test innovations, approaches and interventions that have the potential to lead to improvements in patient safety and the safety of health and care services. A key emphasis underpinning all research themes is the reduction in inequalities in the safety of healthcare.
Experts from Newcastle University, working with Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals (NUTH) and partner organisations will deliver visible research resulting in real-world, transformative change for patient safety and health outcomes for those with multiple long-term conditions (MLTCs). Strategic patient safety challenges will be addressed around:
- Patient safety behaviours
- Effective patient safety practices
- Clinical risk scores (validation, implementation and outcomes).
Artificial intelligence (AI) & data science in multiple long-term conditions
Our research theme embraces the exceptional capacity of artificial intelligence (AI) to spot patterns in vast collections of electronic health records. Our primary objective is to discern risk patterns at both the population and individual patient levels, providing a new lens to view and understand patient health.
This will enable development and testing of early interventions to improve outcomes for patients with multiple long-term conditions, allowing more effective use of healthcare resources. These technology-driven models aim to increase productivity and allow for the earlier detection of potential health issues. A cornerstone of our research strategy is the establishment of a Secure Data Environment (SDE) service.
In collaboration with the Academic Health Science Network (North East and North Cumbria), we are developing this crucial resource to facilitate our data-driven approach. The SDE will provide a secure and ethical framework for approved researchers to access de-identified data from regional primary and secondary care sources.
Safer management of polypharmacy in multiple long-term conditions
Research within this theme will seek to understand what intervention works, for who and in what context to enhance safety where multiple medications are in use. We will draw upon lived experiences of patients and consider how their experiences change over time. This will support the development of interventions across different social care, hospice and community settings, providing greater patient safety.
Safer integrated health & social care environments
Assessment of needs and coordination of medical and social support is essential for safe, appropriate, timely and joined up care for the individual. Risk management will be improved by identifying where risks occur as patients transition between different care settings. Integration of care pathways will be supported through sharing of regional health and social care records.
Safer management of multiple long-term conditions in disadvantaged communities
Assessment of needs and coordination of medical and social support is essential for safe, appropriate, timely and joined up care for the individual. Risk management will be improved by identifying where risks occur as patients transition between different care settings. Integration of care pathways will be supported through sharing of regional health and social care records.
Improving access to healthcare and addressing patient safety behaviour challenges for disadvantaged and marginalised populations will help to reduce inequalities in health and care. We will identify risks, intervention points and actions in various care and community settings. This theme will explore barriers and inequalities in areas such as cancer diagnostic services and unmet care needs in people experiencing homelessness.
Academic Career Development Community
At Newcastle PSRC, we seek to bring together a dynamic, diverse, growing community of health and care researchers and professionals – and to collectively build capacity in patient safety innovation, research and care related to multiple long-term conditions. We emphasise sustainable, integrated career pathways for future patient safety research leaders, from diverse and complementary professional backgrounds.
We offer person-centred career opportunities, mentoring and guidance for students and early career researchers working in patient safety research. This includes pre-doctoral, PhD and postdoctoral opportunities, as well as connecting people to new collaborations, and facilitating close links across the wider training infrastructure with relevance to patient safety. We help our members to build their skills, confidence and habits in engaging widely across disciplinary boundaries and sectors, working collaboratively both within the PRCS and with its wider partners.
We host Europe’s largest concentration of interdisciplinary ageing researchers and lead national centres of excellence across ageing, data, health behaviour, public health, and horizon scanning. These all have priority themes relevant to the PSRC and a strong track record of leading ground-breaking health research in patient safety, multiple long-term conditions, and inequalities. We are ideally placed to build on the existing connections across these, and offer collaborative training and capacity building initiatives relevant to patient safety.
Below you can meet some of the newest members of our Newcastle PSRC Academic Career Development Community. We always welcome more members, and encourage you to get in touch by emailing the PSRC team psrc@newcastle.ac.uk
Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement
It is important for us to capture different perspectives, with public, patients and practitioners being involved in our Newcastle PSRC research. Getting valuable feedback from those with lived experience, across diverse backgrounds, our work will be tailored to be as effective as possible, making the most impact in improving safety in health and social care, particularly for those in underrepresented groups.
Examples of engagement are input into research ideas and questions, reaching out to communities and public, input on results and what they mean, communicating research findings. Those involved could be patients, carers, health and social care practitioners, community representatives or those with experience that could support our research.
This work is overseen by our Public Partnership Advisory Group which reviews the relevance, quality and quantity of engagement, supporting Public and Patient Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategies. Our PPIE and EDI strategies can be viewed below:
If you are interested in getting involved, please contact us at psrc@newcastle.ac.uk
Get Involved
Opportunities to participate in specific research projects will be updated here.
Join our Patient Public Advisory Group
If you are interested in getting involved, please contact us at psrc@newcastle.ac.uk