NHS Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
| IS MY PROJECT... | Research (including clinical trials) | Service evaluation / review | Clinical audit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose Why? | The attempt to derive generalisable or transferable new knowledge to answer questions with scientifically sound methods* including studies that aim to generate hypotheses as well as studies that aim to test them, in addition to simply descriptive studies. | Designed and conducted solely to define or judge current practice or service | Designed and conducted to produce information to inform delivery of best care based on clinical standards. |
| What? | Quantitative research – can be designed to test a hypothesis as in a randomised controlled trial or can simply be descriptive as in a postal survey. Qualitative research – can be used to generate a hypothesis, usually identifies/explores themes. | Designed to answer: “What standard does this service achieve?” | Designed to answer: “Does this practice reach a predetermined clinical standard?” |
| Quantitative research – addresses clearly defined questions, aims and objectives. Qualitative research – usually has clear aims and objectives but may not establish the exact questions to be asked until research is underway. | Measures current service without reference to a standard, compares the effectiveness of a new practice compared to current practice or evaluates an educational programme. | Measures against evidence based clinical standards | |
| Quantitative research – may involve evaluating or comparing interventions, particularly new ones. However, some quantitative research such as descriptive surveys, do not involve interventions. Qualitative research – seeks to understand better the perceptions and reasoning of people. | Involves an intervention in use only. The choice of treatment, care or services is that of the care professional and patient/service user according to guidance, professional standards and/or patient/ service user preference. | Involves an intervention in use only. The choice of treatment, care or services is that of the care professional and patient/service user according to guidance, professional standards and/or patient/service user preference. | |
| How? | Usually involves collecting data that are additional to those for routine care but may include data collected routinely. May involve treatments, samples or investigations additional to routine care. May involve data collected from interviews, focus groups and/or observation. | Usually involves analysis of existing data but may also include administration of interview(s) or questionnaire(s). | Usually involves analysis of existing data but may include administration of simple interview or questionnaire. |
| Quantitative research – study design may involve allocating patients/ service users/ healthy volunteers to an intervention. Qualitative research – does not usually involve allocating participants to an intervention. | No allocation to intervention: the care professional and patient/ service user have chosen intervention before service evaluation. | No allocation to intervention: the care professional and patient/service user have chosen intervention before audit. | |
| May involve randomisation. | No randomisation | No randomisation | |
| Approvals required ? | An ethical opinion may be required from a Research Ethics Committee (REC) and approval from the Health Research Authority (HRA) will be required. If you are unsure, please contact the R&I team at the Trust or http://www.hraddecisiontools.org.uk/ethics/ | No ‘REC or ‘HRA’ opinion required. | No ‘REC or ‘HRA’ opinion required. |
| Approvals are submitted through the IRAS portal Integrated Research Application System (myresearchproject.org.uk) | |||
| How to start? | Speak to your clinical or academic supervisor – or contact the Research team huht-tr.riadmin@nhs.net | -Speak to your local service lead and obtain approval -Register your SE project with R&I by way of sending the proposal and attach service lead approval -Project will be reviewed and logged in R&I -Approval to start SE based on the information provided will be given | Log Audit with the Trust audit team - huht-tr.clinical.audit@nhs.net |
| What to do at the end? | The results of research should be reported, whether through publication in peer reviewed journals or other means of dissemination. Negative as well as positive results should be published, or at least made publicly available | Share results to R&I and feedback directly to the service | Audit team will advise |
| Who to contact? Read more here | Contact the Governance team in R&I Contact: huh-tr.riadmin@nhs.net | Ensure your service lead is aware of the project, then contact the Governance team in R&I: Contact: huh-tr.riadmin@nhs.net | Register with your Audit department Contact: huh-tr.clinical.audit@nhs.net |