Improving health and social care through research

To meet the need for skilled researchers within Health and Social Care (HSC) in Northern Ireland, the HSC Research and Development (HSC R&D) Division at the Public Health Agency (PHA) has awarded three research fellowships.

These awards will help to improve the care and treatment of people in Northern Ireland, advancing our knowledge about illness, how the human body and mind work, and how we can better prevent and treat disease.

The successful applicants, selected from a pool of 27, are all working within well-established health and social care research centres in Northern Ireland and presenting high quality research proposals.

The recipients are:

• Dr Helen Wallace, Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, who will investigate the effect of vitamin D3 supplements on insulin resistance and cardiovascular risk factors in people at high risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease;
• Mrs Loreena Hill, Heart Failure Nurse, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, will explore the views and perspectives of heart failure patients', carers' and healthcare professionals' on the deactivation of Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (pacemakers) at end of life;
• Mr Richard Gould, Senior Cardiac Radiographer, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, will look at whether he can reduce the amount of X-ray radiation required for children undergoing heart operations, without reducing the quality of the images.

Describing the importance of these awards, Dr Michael Neely, Assistant Director, HSC R&D Division, PHA, said: “These fellowships are an important step towards a research career for health and social care professionals. The stringent selection process examined the potential benefits that these proposals will bring to HSC service development, service users and the public. The commitment of the candidate to a career in health and social care research and how they will involve service users and the public, in all stages of their study, were also considered.” 

“We hope that doctoral fellows will become leaders in health and social care research, using the expertise they gain to make a significant contribution to the evidence base underpinning their professional work, leading to the best new treatments and continually developing and improving HSC services.”

Alongside their study, the fellows will have the opportunity to undertake intensive, bespoke training to develop their research expertise. The results of these research studies will be used to improve future health and social care services in Northern Ireland.