Public Workshop in Dundee: Your Data and Health Research

SHIP is a Scotland-wide research programme exploring ways of collecting, managing and analysing Electronic Patient Records for health research. The public workshops will be an opportunity to hear more about SHIP and about the ways in which personal medical data are currently used in research as well as being a chance for members of the public to contribute their own views.

The first of these workshops will be held in Dundee (at the Apex Hotel) on Saturday 3rd March 2012. We are keen to involve a wide range of members of the public in these workshops. If you know of anyone who you think might be interested in this please do pass the information on, and if you have any suggestions of contacts that would also be greatly appreciated.

The workshops are free to attend and open to everyone, however we ask that participants register in advance by contacting Brenda Saetta (email: brenda.saetta @ed.ac.uk tel: 0131 651 1832) preferably by Monday 27th February.

Each workshop will include presentations from representatives of SHIP and the Information Services Division (ISD) of NHS Scotland as well as small group discussions and voting on key questions relating to how personal medical data is used in research. Refreshments and a light lunch will be provided.

Professionalism, education and healthcare practice

Alan Cribb, Professor of Bioethics and Education at King’s College London, gave an impressively broad-ranging and thought-provoking seminar that explored key conceptual and normative issues in current debates around professionalism.
‘Professionalism’ is high on policy, education and research agendas. The concept features strongly, for example, in contemporary concerns about: the implications of ‘protocolising’ practice in the pursuit of effectiveness, efficiency and safety; the erosion of ideals that occurs as students progress through professional education; and the dilemmas that arise for health professionals with plural roles (nurses employed to recruit patients to clinical trials, GPs serving as commissioners of services for populations, etc.).
Alan highlighted the interconnections between understandings of professionalism that focus on the possession of admirable personal qualities and understandings that focus on social issues of authority and co-ordination. He then raised questions about the kinds of norms that are related to notions of ‘expertise’ and ‘social authority’, and challenged us with reflections on whether a ‘new professionalism’ (which involves inter-professional team working in the context of regulated organisations, reflects aspirations for more equal professional-client relations, and works to population as well as individual concerns) can be both desirable and possible.
Alan’s presentation stimulated a thoughtful discussion that highlighted some important commonalities of interest among academics involved in professional education and research into professionalism in medicine, nursing, dentistry and social work. Subsequent conversations have suggested interest in further meetings to foster cross-disciplinary exchanges to strengthen ongoing work across the universities of Dundee and St Andrews.

If you are interested, please let us know by contacting Rosanne Bell at SDHI r.c.bell @dundee.ac.uk.

Seminars, webinars, workshops – many ways of sharing knowledge

Research Needs of Scottish Healthcare Managers (RUNE Project)

This one-day symposium will take place on 2nd March 2012, 10am-2pm in the University of St Andrews, School of Management, The Gateway Building, The Board Room. The RUNE project and the symposium are a collaborative effort between the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews and was funded by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO). The aim for the symposium is to share research findings. Topics include

The challenges of evidence-informed healthcare management

Research needs of Scottish healthcare managers: sharing the findings from the RUNE project

CHAIN (Contact, Help, Advice and Information Network): making the most of a local knowledge broker

If you wish to participate, please contact Professor Huw Davies at hd @st-andrews.ac.uk

While attendance is free, please note space is quite limited!

Upcoming events in St Andrews

The School of Medicine in St Andrews will host several events as part of its Seminar Series 2011-2012 with immediate relevance for research into the social dimensions of health, wellbeing and participation. The seminar series is organised by Dr Gozde Ozakinci who is affiliated with SDHI. All seminars take place n the Medical and Biological Sciences Building Seminar Room 2. Below is a list of upcoming topics and speakers.

16th February 2012, 4pm

Dr Barry Gibson, Senior Lecturer in Medical Sociology Unit of Dental Public Health, School of Clinical Dentistry, University of Sheffield

Exploring illness communications: unpicking the impact of social structure on communicating health and illness

1st March 2012, 4pm

Dr Russell Viner, Professor of Adolescent Health, University College London Institute of Child Health

Adolescence and the social determinants of health: a life course perspective

6th March 2012, 4pm

Professor Paul Cleary, Yale School of Public Health

Measuring and assessing the effects of patient-centered care

For a full list of these seminars, please contact Dr Ozakinci at go10 @st-andrews.ac.uk or Rosanne Bell r.c.bell @dundee.ac.uk

‘Connections’ – The SDHI eNewsletter launched today

Today we launched SDHI ‘Connections’.

The newsletter will be published several times a year and distributed via our mailing lists to subscribers. ‘Connections’ is integrated with our news blog. It will cover past and future events, activities, research updates and publications. It is not a replacement for our website news blog, rather it complements it. For all most current and up-to-date news continue to visit http://www.sdhi.ac.uk or follow us on Twitter or Facebook. We hope you will like ‘Connections’ and provide us with feedback overtime. Read connections in your web browser or on the go on your mobile device. If you don’t receive ‘Connections’ yet, contact us (r.c.bell @dundee.ac.uk) and subscribe to our mailing list. Here it is also a pdf of it

SDHInewsletter

Emerging research development groups

SDHI is supporting the development of interdisciplinary research development groups (RDGs). Some of these emerging groups are centred around existing research funding, others are developing with future research opportunities in mind. In this process we would like to invite you to participate in this process. The purpose of the groups is to develop research grants and build and enhance research capabilities across the universities and partners. On this newsblog we already reported on a group focused on ‘Intellectual Disabilities’, and also described SDHIs support for the ‘CanWork’ initiative, a UK wide network of researchers engaged in employment-related research in cancer. New initiatives on the horizon are emerging groups in the following areas:

1. Rehabilitation and recovery

This group so far consists of researchers from various disciplines in the applied health sciences (physiotherapy, nursing), psychology and social sciences. Current grants among others focus on physical activity after stroke, stroke outcome measurement, and cancer rehabilitation.

2. Inequalities and oral health

This group is being formed to bring together researchers from dentistry/oral health science, public health, nursing, psychology. The group explores common research interests in topics like early years interventions in oral health, craniofacial impairments, access to oral health care for special populations (e.g. homeless, prison).

3. Public health perspectives on disability

This strand of work focuses on the experiences of people with physical, sensory and cognitive disabilities with access to and utilisation of health care services. It takes into consideration person and environment factors and is anchored in the WHO International Classification on Functioning, Disability and Health. The aim is to bring together researchers from various disciplines around three strands of work: (1) inclusive measurement, (2) access and utilisation of primary care and specialist services, and (3) health promotion.

If you are interested in participating in any of these research development groups or if you have ideas and seek partners for new research groupings that focus on the social dimension of health, wellbeing and participation, please do get in touch with us.

We will post updates on the development of these and other groups on our newsblog.

SDHI Workshop (co-hosted with the Applied Quantitative Methods Network AQMeN)

SDHI and the Applied Quantitative Methods Network (AQMeN) are delighted to announce a Social Network Analysis workshop.  It will take place on: 

Tuesday 6th March 2012
between 1pm and 4.30pm 

and will be led by

Robert Raeside
Professor of Applied Statistics
Edinburgh Napier University 

Social Network Analysis

This workshop will be held in
Room 2F15, Dalhousie Building
University of Dundee

If you would like to book a place at this workshop then please contact Rosanne Bell r.c.bell@dundee.ac.uk

SDHI Seminar (co-hosted with the Centre for Medical Education)

The next seminar will take place on: 

Monday 13th February 2012
between 3pm and 5pm 

and will be led by

Alan Cribb
Professor of Bioethics and Education
Centre for Public Policy Research
King’s College London 

Professional norms: combining sociological and philosophical perspectives on professionalism in healthcare 

This seminar will be held in
Room 2F13, Dalhousie Building
University of Dundee 

ALL WELCOME

SDHI research strategy presentation

SDHI has adopted a new research strategy building on its strength and embracing research opportunities at the intersection of four principal and dynamic areas of development that affect the populations’ health, wellbeing and opportunities for participation. These include demographic, environmental, technological, and economic impacts. SDHI continues its work that rests on three pillars: 1) Interdisciplinary research; 2) knowledge exchange, and 3) capacity and capability building.

Sdhi strategy presentation

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