PhD Studentship: Optimising the effectiveness of ventilator therapies in motor neurone disease.

Patients motor neurone disease (MND) who attend specialist clinics have been shown to live longer. However many patients struggle to attend these clinics, particularly as they become more disabled. An app (TiM: Telehealth in Motor neurone disease) has been developed in Sheffield Institute for Translational Neurosciences in collaboration with Mylan Ltd which can collect information about a patient and their carer from their own home. This app has been tested in early clinical trials and has been found to be a promising way to help people access the help they need (http://sitran.org/clinical-studies/telemedicine). The next stage of this project is a larger scale testing and development of the app in different centres in the UK and abroad.

The project aims to:

1. To determine the current clinical practices of a range of MND centres in the UK and abroad, how these compare to best-practice, and how the TiM system might be used within these services to deliver better MND care.
2. To conduct an evaluation of the TiM use in a larger number of diverse MND centres.
3. To identify, implement and evaluate improvements to the TiM system.

The project’s objectives:

1. To analyse existing data and/or collect prospective data on clinical services in a selected number of MND clinics (e.g. admission rates, outpatient services, waiting list times).
2. To conduct observations/interviews/focus groups/workshops with relevant stakeholders at each stage of the TiM roll out to identify theneeds and enablers of the new service.
3. To identify ways in which to improve the TiM and work with developers to implement these changes.
4. To collect qualitative and quantitative data from patients/carers and staff
5. to evaluate the use and acceptability of the TiM and determine effectiveness by comparing it to best practice standards.

This project will be based within Sheffield Institute for Translational Neurosciences (www.sitran.org.uk), the internationally centre of excellence in motor neurone disease research and clinical care. There is a strong history of successful research to improve the care of patients with MND (http://sitran.org/clinical-studies/). As a project sits within the new National Institute for Heath Research Biomedical Research Unit the student will be able to work with experts in Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) who are part of one of only seven NHS “test-beds” which are developing other digital health services aiming to use technology to meet the demands of a modern, high quality healthcare service (http://ppptestbed.nhs.uk). It will provide the student with the opportunity to collaborate with industry and develop skills in rigorous applied health services research methods, (qualitative and quantitative methods including realist evaluation), user-centred design and novel digital health-care service design.

The student will have opportunities to attend lectures and workshops in both SITraN and ScHARR as well as gain some experience of MND care, depending on their interests.

Funding Notes

Eligibility Requirements

The student should have a fluent grasp of written and spoken English and a first or upper second class degree in a relevant undergraduate in a relevant subject (including biomedical sciences, health psychology, nursing, physiotherapy). A master’s degree, previous experience interacting with people with health problems or disabilities and experience in research would be desirable. The student would need to travel to other MND centres in the UK occasionally.

References

The Faculty Scholarships for Medicine, Dentistry & Health cover fees and stipend at Home/EU level. Overseas students may apply but will need to fund the fee differential between Home and Overseas rate from another source.