Eileen Morrow, a Senior Orthotist at Oxford University Hospitals, has been awarded an NIHR Doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship for a programme of research focused on standardising outcomes for planned leg operations in children.
Planned leg operations can happen for many reasons including to repair a damaged joint, or to remove a tumour. However, there are many ways to measure improvements in children after the operation, including pain, walking distance or how happy the child feels. This makes it difficult for surgeons and researchers to make a comparison between different types and methods of operation. Eileen's research aims to develop a core outcome set by considering the outcomes most important to the children, and the opinions of their carers and health professionals.
"I am honoured and delighted to have been awarded a prestigious NIHR Doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship. It offers an exceptional opportunity to answer important questions children and parents have about their orthopaedic surgery, while I personally develop a career as a clinical academic. I am excited to undertake this Fellowship at NDORMS, given their unparalleled support for allied health professionals as leaders in clinical research, and substantial support of my own career to date."
Mae Chester-Jones, Medical Statistician with the Centre for Statistics in Medicine was awarded a NIHR Doctoral fellowship for her work in obstetric prediction modelling. She said: "I am thrilled to be awarded this fellowship and incredibly grateful to my supervisors and NDORMS colleagues for their help with my application. Over 3-years, I will develop a risk assessment tool that identifies when women will become seriously ill during pregnancy. My work will be shaped by a PPI group and their experiences of pregnancy. This fantastic award will enable me to build collaborations and undertake an extensive training programme to develop myself as a researcher."
Mae will develop a risk assessment tool to better identify the women who are most likely to become seriously ill during pregnancy. Pregnant women can become very ill, very quickly and without rapid treatment, the results can be fatal or leave women with long term health problems. Existing tools fail to predict this with enough accuracy or may have not been designed specifically with pregnancy in mind. By using information which is collected during every pregnancy, such as the woman's age and her blood pressure, the tool will be designed to predict possible problems and enable doctors and midwives to provide the right care for women.