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The World Health Organisation's (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist is the culmination of over 5 years of concerted research effort to better understand, model and intervene in human factors that affect clinical performance and patient safety in operating theatres and surgical care. Imperial researchers were instrumental in the set up and implementation of the WHO `Safe Surgery Saves Lives' working group, launched in 2006, from which the Checklist was a primary outcome. Subsequently, we were co-investigators, and UK-lead, in a global study the implementation of the Checklist in 8 pilot hospitals across 7 continents. The Checklist was demonstrated to significantly improve patient outcomes and was modified and mandated for use in all NHS surgical procedures in England by the National Patient Safety Agency. We have since lead a national study that evaluated the implementation of the Checklist within the NHS and successfully delivered a team training programme aimed at optimising use of the Checklist in our hospitals.
We have developed resources that have been widely used, nationally and internationally, to support the education of healthcare professionals and nurses. Our aim is to enhance the safe care of patients.
We demonstrate the impact of deploying real time 3D computer graphics and haptics technologies in the context of training minimally invasive procedures. It is widely accepted in medical specialties that a reform in teaching methods must be made to meet today's high volume training requirements. Receiving instruction in a core set of skills and procedures before novice practitioners are exposed to the traditional, patient based, apprenticeship model has been shown will reduce the time needed to acquire skills, maintain competence, and reduce the initial errors made on patients. The case study centres on three simulators developed at Bangor (Figure 1).
Research by the University of Nottingham's Education and Technology for Health team has benefited healthcare students, professionals, users, carers and institutions both in the UK and internationally by establishing a participatory methodology for high-quality, sustainable multimedia Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs). These learning tools are now used in 50 countries globally to facilitate individual access to knowledge, enhance learning within curriculums and deliver continuing professional development, with feedback showing satisfaction of up to 100% in some nations. They are also being used to train healthcare professionals in resource-poor countries, further strengthening the University of Nottingham's role as a global education provider.
The emergency care team at Warwick Medical School has a strong track record of high-quality health sciences research encompassing evidence synthesis, health-services research and clinical trials. Our trials of a 03b2-agonist (salbutamol) in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) have influenced therapeutic recommendations in the International Sepsis Guidelines (2013), reducing the use of this potentially detrimental therapy. Our cardiac arrest research informed the 2010 international guidelines on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) led to the generation of new intellectual property, and prompted industrial collaborations to build new technologies, such as TrueCPRTM (2013). These have led to improved CPR practice and improved patient survival. Furthermore, our research has led to major policy changes and to a redesign of UK emergency healthcare, improving cost efficiency, the patient experience and clinical outcomes (e.g. 95% of patients were treated within 4 hours - up from 65%; and people leaving without been seen reduced to less than 5%).
Teaching and learning of computer architecture has been enhanced using highly interactive simulations with carefully constructed visualisations and animations. Computer scientists need to understand and observe how different parts of a modern computer system's architecture and organization fit together, interact and support each other. Unique educational simulation software has been designed, developed and evaluated with these requirements in mind. Since the software and teaching materials have been made public, numerous universities worldwide adopted it in their courses with claimed positive impact on student engagement, course popularity, grades, speed of delivery of curriculum, attendance and peer recognition of best practice.
Our research explored the ways the emerging Semantic Web can support teaching and learning. It identified case based learning as a key area and outputs were used to enhance the unique research council funded Economic and Social Data Service public collections and pioneers pages. Results informed the thinking of accountancy bodies on e-assessment via the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants/International Association for Accounting Education. An exemplary user case study derived from the research was selected by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The research supported the aggregation and presentation of Open Educational Resources via JISC. Project software and documentation was released as open source. Outcomes provided the `Liverpool, City of Radicals' Project timeline.
The development of unique computer simulation tools has profoundly influenced the design and manufacture of silicon chips fuelling the $300 billion per year semiconductor industry. A pioneer of statistical variability research, Professor Asen Asenov developed understanding and awareness of statistical variability in the nanoscale transistors which make up all silicon chips. Gold Standard Simulations (GSS) was created in 2010 and by 2012-13 had grown revenue from services and licensing to $1million. GSS tools are currently used in foundries providing 75% of all semiconductor production for fabless design companies globally. For example, working with GSS and their simulation tools has reduced the development time for IBM's next generation of CMOS technology by 1 year, representing significant savings in the 3-5 year technology development cycle.
The research has enabled industrial simulation users to investigate and develop larger scale systems faster and cheaper and thus to explore a wider variety of cost-saving options with more precision, and industrial simulation providers to offer new high-performance simulation (HPS) products and services. As a direct result of this work: Ford has made £150,000 cost savings in consultancy and significant process improvements to engine manufacture globally; Saker Solutions (UK SME) has created the first ever HPS system for production and logistics; Sellafield PLC has used this system to make significant process improvements and savings in the management of nuclear waste reprocessing of around £200,000 per year; and Whole Systems Partnership (a UK SME) used a spin-off from this research to generate a £200,000 per year revenue stream from interoperable healthcare decision support systems. Globally, several other companies are adopting the standardisation efforts and other outcomes of the research as the foundation for future innovation.