Last week, a number of our staff members presented at the virtual SPHeRE Network’s 8th Annual Conference, discussing restrictive practices in nursing homes, implementing national standards, evidence synthesis and notifiable incidents in social care services.
Speaking at a session on person-centred care, Paul Dunbar, our Senior Researcher, presented on a cross-sectional study to review the incidence and type of restrictive practice used in nursing homes in Ireland. The study used data from our Database of Statutory Notifications from Social Care which can be accessed here.
Our PhD Student, Yvonne Kelly, also presented at the session on the factors that influence the implementation of health and social care standards in services. She discussed the most frequently-reported enablers to implementation, including having support tools at a local level and the recruitment and availability of staff. The barriers to putting health and social care standards into practice included a lack of awareness and understanding among staff of what standards are, as well as staffing constraints.
A number of our colleagues also gave poster presentations.
- Dr Kieran Walsh, Senior HTA Analyst, presented a poster on a review of the real-world evidence on the effectiveness of rapid antigen testing for screening of asymptomatic individuals to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2. The poster was based on work we completed to help support the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET). You can read it here.
- Dr Melissa Sharp, our postdoctoral research collaborator at Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, submitted a poster on a mixed methods systematic review which explored the effectiveness and acceptability of evidence synthesis summary formats for clinical guidelines development groups. View it here.
- Dr Helen O’Donnell, Senior HTA Analyst, presented a poster on a review of the duration of protective immunity following COVID-19 vaccination. View it here.
- Dr Karen Cardwell, Senior HTA Analyst, presented on a systematic review of the most recent clinical guideline update processes, used by international or national groups who provide methods guidance for developing and updating clinical guidelines. View it here.
- Karen Jordan, our Health Services Researcher, presented two posters relating to the health technology assessment (HTA) of metabolic surgery for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity that is currently underway. You can find out more about this HTA here.
- Dr Susan Spillane, our Head of Assessment, presented on our review of international processes used to inform policy-making on the expansion of newborn bloodspot screening programmes. View it here.
- Niall McGrane, our Post-Doctoral Researcher, presented a poster on the contributing factors to notifiable events being submitted to HIQA in residential care facilities. View it here.
Furthermore, two keynote speakers at the event, Dr Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer in the Department of Health and Professor Philip Nolan, Director General of Science Foundation Ireland, discussed the vital role our COVID-19 Evidence Synthesis Team played in the national response to the pandemic by providing outputs in policy relevant time frames in their presentations. They both acknowledged the substantial contribution that HIQA’s work has made to the national response.
Learn more about the SPHeRE Network conference here.