NDORMS have been very successful in the latest round of NIHR applications, with three Fellowships awarded to Dr David Keene, Mr Stephen Gerry and Dr Hawys Lloyd-Hughes.
NIHR Post Doctoral Research Fellowship
Dr David Keene has been awarded an NIHR Post Doctoral Fellowship for a programme of research focused on developing physiotherapy interventions for patients who have had internal fixation surgery for an ankle fracture.
Each year, one in 800 people break their ankles in the UK, with the more severe injuries being referred for surgery. David's research programme will look at a growing proportion of these injuries occurring in older adults, who have prolonged and incomplete recovery compared with younger patients.
David says: "I would like to acknowledge all my colleagues in the department who supported my application and who I look forward to working with over the four years of the Fellowship. This work will enable me to gain the skills and experience needed to build my independence as a clinical researcher in the field of musculoskeletal injury rehabilitation".
NIHR Post Doctoral Fellowships support outstanding early-career researchers to fulfill their potential as health research leaders of the future, supporting their research, training and development for 3 to 5 years.
NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowships
Researchers Stephen Gerry, with the Centre for Statistics in Medicine at NDORMS, and Hawys Lloyd-Hughes have been awarded the NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship.
Commenting on his award, Stephen said: "We know that some hospital patients suffer unnecessary death and illness on hospital wards. Hospital staff have tried to prevent this from happening by using algorithms called early warning scores to predict which patients are at risk. These algorithms combine a patient's routinely measured vital signs, such as their blood pressure and heart rate, and are used almost universally across the NHS. As vital signs are increasingly recorded electronically instead of on paper charts, we have a great opportunity to improve the algorithms. My fellowship will focus on developing better and more sophisticated algorithms, meaning that more patients will be prevented from unnecessary harm and hospital staff's time will be used more efficiently."
He added: "I will use new statistical methods that incorporate the repeated measurements within a patient into the prediction, which has not previously been done. Having spent the majority of my career so far providing statistical support to randomised trials, this fellowship will enable me to become a researcher in my own right. It will provide me with time to really understand the problem, and hopefully provide a solution that has a real benefit to patients."