Thames Valley healthcare set to improve through research

The University of Reading has joined a five-year research collaboration to develop and test practical solutions that improve health and care services for communities across the Thames Valley and beyond.

The NIHR ARC Thames Valley is hosted by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and co-led by the University of Oxford and Aston University. It is one of ten ARCs across England funded through a national £157 million investment by the NIHR.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) Thames Valley aims to make health and care better, faster and more efficient for patients. It will focus on developing new ways of preventing and managing health conditions and moving these into practical use. This will ensure the latest research directly shapes the way health and care services are designed and delivered.

The University of Reading is joining the ARC Thames Valley’s consortium of 29 partners including  universities, NHS Trusts, charities, community organisations, companies and local authorities. Its work will be guided by the everyday health and care needs of people across the Thames Valley, particularly those with complex care needs. It will involve more people with health conditions and members of the public as active participants alongside health researchers and the region’s decision makers.

Research across the ARC Thames Valley will focus on three key themes – starting well, living well and ageing well. Projects will include developing ways to help new mums, children and young people with physical and mental health problems, supporting working age adults with multiple health conditions to live well, and promoting brain and heart health in the elderly.

In response to record demand for social care services, the collaboration will also work to develop new models of social care, so that people continue to be healthy, happy and independent in their own homes for as long as possible including with the help of novel digital technologies.

Within the living well theme, a workstream on the ‘social and commercial determinants of health’ will be led by Professor Carol Wagstaff from the University of Reading’s Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences.

Professor Wagstaff said: “Joining this collaboration will enable us to build on our expertise in working with partners to develop practical solutions that advance health equity.

“We will be able to scale up and scale out the work we started in FoodSEqual and the Berkshire Health Inequalities Group, working with communities who experience barriers to health across the region to overcome the challenges they face.”

Professor Kam Bhui, Director of the NIHR ARC Thames Valley at the University of Oxford, said: “The ARC Thames Valley will work to close the gap between research and practice. We’re bringing together some of the region’s best health researchers with a range of organisations so that together we can ensure that new research findings directly shape how services are designed and delivered in the Thames Valley, especially for communities where inequalities are greatest.”

Professor Shivani Sharma, Co-Director of the NIHR ARC Thames Valley and Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor at Aston University, said: “The people most affected by health and care challenges should not be the last to shape solutions. This collaboration brings communities, researchers and health and social care leaders together to focus on what matters most. This is about improving care, and supporting healthier lives, which drive  wider social and economic resilience”.