Publications and outputs

Published reports

National Institute for Health and Care Research, Health Services and Delivery Research stream (NIHR HSDR) published report Vertical integration of general practices with acute hospitals in England: rapid impact evaluation Manni Sidhu, Katie Saunders, Charlotte Davies, Gemma McKenna, Frances Wu, Ian Litchfield, Fifi Olumogba, Jon Sussex; October 2023

National Institute for Health Research Services and Delivery Research (NIHR HSDR) published report Rapid evaluation of service innovations in health and social care: key considerations Judith Smith, Jo Ellins, Chris Sherlaw-Johnson, Cecilia Vindrola-Padros, Jon Appleby, Stephen Morris, et al; July 2023

National Institute for Health Research Services and Delivery Research stream (NIHR HSDR) Rapid Evaluation Centre Topic Report: Early evaluation of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Trailblazer programme: a rapid mixed-methods study; Jo Ellins, Lucy Hocking, Mustafa Al-Haboubi, Jenny Newbould, Sarah-Jane Fenton, Kelly Daniel, Stephanie Stockwell, Brandi Leach, Manbinder Sidhu, Jenny Bousfield, Gemma McKenna, Katie Saunders, Stephen O’Neill, Nicholas Mays; January 2023

National Institute for Health Research, Health Services and Delivery Research stream (NIHR HSDR) published report in Journals Library Using pulse oximeters in care homes for residents with COVID-19 and other conditions: a rapid mixed-methods evaluation Manbinder Sidhu, Ian Litchfield, Robin Miller, Naomi J Fulop, Barbara Janta, Jamie-Rae Tanner, Giulia Maistrello, Jenny Bousfield, Cecilia Vindrola-Padros, Jon Sussex, November 2022

National Institute for Health Research Services and Delivery Research stream (NIHR HSDR) Rapid Evaluation Centre Topic Report A Rapid Mixed Methods Evaluation of Remote Home Monitoring Models During the COVID-19 Pandemic in England (see "Award Data" Nov 2022 Web Report)  Naomi J. Fulop, Holly Walton, Nadia Crellin, Theo Georghiou, Lauren Herlitz, Ian Litchfield, Efthalia Massou, Chris Sherlaw-Johnson, Manbinder Sidhu, Sonila M. Tomini, Cecilia Vindrola-Padros, Jo Ellins, Stephen Morris, Pei Li Ng, November 2022

National Institute for Health Research Services and Delivery Research stream (NIHR HSDR) Rapid Evaluation Centre Report: New and emerging technology for adult social care - the example of home sensors with artificial intelligence (AI) technology; Jon Glasby, Ian Litchfield, Sarah Parkinson, Lucy Hocking, Denise Tanner, Bridget Roe, Jennifer Bousfield; June 2023

National Institute for Health Research Services and Delivery Research stream (NIHR HSDR) published report in Journals Library Impact of telephone triage on access to primary care for people living with multiple long-term health conditions: rapid evaluation Catherine Saunders, Evangelos Gkousis, July 2022 

Interim published report Early evaluation of the Children and Young People's Mental Health Trailblazer programme Jo Ellins, Kelly Singh, Mustafa Al-Haboubi, Jenny Newbould, Lucy Hocking, Jenny Bousfield, Gemma McKenna, Sarah-Jane Fenton, Nicholas Mays, July 2022

National Institute for Health Research, Health Services and Delivery Research stream (NIHR HSDR) published report in Journals Library Vertical integration of GP practices with acute hospitals in England and Wales: rapid evaluation Dr Manbinder Sidhu, Jack Pollard, Jon Sussex; first published December 2020

National Institute for Health Research, Health Services and Delivery Research stream (NIHR HSDR) published report in Journals Library Early evidence of the development of primary care networks in England Professor Judith Smith, Sarah Parkinson, Dr Manni Sidhu; first published November 2020 

Conference Papers 

Professor Judith Smith. Primary care networks in the English NHS: (another) triumph of hope over experience. HSR UK 2020 Conference.

Dr Manbinder Sidhu. Acute hospitals managing general practice services in the UK: why, how and what are the consequences for primary care delivery? HSR UK 2020 Conference.

Dr Holly Walton. Rapid prioritisation of adult social care innovations for evaluation: Reflections and considerations. HSR UK 2020 Conference.

Amelia Harshfield, Natasha Elmore, Jon Sussex. The evaluation of large-scale collaborations between primary care general practices. PROSPERO 2018 CRD42018110790 

Slide Sets and Recordings

The BRACE Women’s Health Hubs evaluation team have drawn together the outcomes from the evaluation into two slide sets which outline the findings and the lessons for implementers

The HSR UK Conference in July 2022 featured recorded presentations from three BRACE evaluations:

  1.  Introducing new and emerging technology for adult social care: The example of remote sensors with artificial intelligence (AI) technology 
  2. Educational Mental Health Practitioners (EMHP) - Embedding a new health workforce within education 
  3. Impact of telephone triage on access to primary care for people living with multiple long-term health conditions: rapid evaluation

The fourth annual 'Rapid Evaluation in Health Care' conference in January 2022 was organised by the Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation in collaboration with the BRACE and RSET and brought together representatives from the rapid evaluation community, including analysts, service users and commissioners. Sessions across the two days focused on the role of rapid evaluation in supporting NHS recovery post-Covid 19 and in making progress towards environmental sustainability and meeting climate change goals. A plenary session ‘Working together: the rapid evaluation of Covid oximetry at home’ discussed experiences of collaborative working on the RSET/BRACE evaluation of Covid Oximetry @home. Recordings of the sessions are available to view.

A slide set of findings from three independent evaluations of the NHS COVID Oximetry @home programme completed by RSET and BRACE, the Improvement Analytics Unit (Health Foundation), and Imperial College London, November 2021

Early insights from the national evaluation of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Trailblazer Programme were presented at the HSR UK Conference, July 2021

The third annual virtual ‘Rapid Evaluation in Health Care’ conference in January 2021: The conference explored what good practice in a rapid, rigorous evaluation looks like, and this year how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the evaluation landscape. Recordings of the sessions delivered as part of the conference are available to view along with other useful resources.

Prof Katherine Checkland, Dr Paul Mills and Dr Manni Sidhu for BRACE presented at The Rapid Evaluation in Healthcare Conference in January 2020  on Governance processes for rapid evaluation principles, problems and preferences and discussed how governance processes may impact upon the rapidity of an evaluation and how it can be overcome.

Chris Sherlaw Johnson, Dr Jean Ledger and Amelia Harshfield for BRACE presented at The Rapid Evaluation in Healthcare Conference in January 2020 on Evaluations of national programmes using mixed methods and spoke about their experiences of completing evaluations of national programmes using mixed methods.

Professor Judith Smith presented at the Advancing Rapid Evaluation Challenges and Opportunities Conference hosted by the RSET and BRACE Rapid Evaluation Teams in London in January 2019 on Rapid Evaluation in Healthcare: opportunities, need and challenges.  Judith outlined definitions and context of rapid evaluation and explored some of the challenges entailed in being both rapid and rigorous in undertaking such work.

Journal Articles, Blogs and Comment Pieces

An article in Journal of Health Services Research & Policy, July 2023 Staff experiences of training and delivery of remote home monitoring services for patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in England: A mixed-methods study details the nature of 'work' that health care staff in England undertook to manage patients with COVID-19 remotely, how they were supported to deliver these new services, and the factors that influenced delivery of COVID-19 remote home monitoring services for staff.

A blog on The Power to Persuade, May 2023 details Findings from the early evaluation of the UK Children and Young People's Mental Health Trailblazer programme — Power to Persuade

An article in Health & Social Care in the Community, May 2023 "Trying to Find People to Fit the Tech…”: A Qualitative Exploration of the Lessons Learnt Introducing Artificial Intelligence-Based Technology into English Social Care

Driving Digitalisation: How providers can use research to implemement new technologies, May 2023 shares findings of the evaluation on the implementation of new technology in care settings.

A blog in The Health Foundation, February 2023 Should NHS trusts manage general practice? summarises what suggested reforms might mean for policymakers considering options for the future.

An article in Frontiers in Sociology, February 2023 Undertaking rapid evaluations during the COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons from evaluating COVID-19 remote home monitoring services in England looks at the account of how to plan and conduct large-scale rapid evaluations, ensure scientific rigour, and achieve stakeholder engagement within compressed timeframes.

Part of the BMJ COVID enquiry series examine how communities of practice developed and shared knowledge about covid-19 and how the process could be more effective, October 2022 Learning networks in the pandemic: mobilising evidence for improvement

A blog in Understanding Society, September 2022 Is telephone triage helping patients with more than one condition?

An article in Health Expectations, July 2022 Patients' experiences of, and engagement with, remote home monitoring services for COVID-19 patients: A rapid mixed-methods study; presents findings on patient experiences of, and engagement with, remote home monitoring models for COVID-19.

An article in EClinical Medicine, June 2022: The impact of post-hospital remote monitoring of COVID-19 patients using pulse oximetry: a national observational study using hospital activity data; this study is an evaluation of the impact of the 'Covid Virtual Ward' services on hospital activity.

An article in EClinical Medicine, March 2022: The impact of remote home monitoring of people with COVID-19 using pulse oximetry: A national population and observational study presents findings on an evaluation of the clinical effectiveness of the pre-hospital monitoring programme, COVID oximetry@home (CO@h).

Blog by Manni Sidhu March 2022: Pulse oximetry in care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic: sharing lessons from two independent rapid evaluations

BMJ Open article January 2022: Manni Sidhu, Jack Pollard, Jon Sussex Vertical integration of primary care practices with acute hospitals in England and Wales: why, how and so what? Findings from a qualitative, rapid evaluation

BMJ Open article January 2022: Sarah Parkinson, Judith Smith, Manni Sidhu Early development of primary care networks in the NHS in England: a qualitative mixed-methods evaluation

An article in EClinical Medicine, April 2021: The implementation of remote home monitoring models during the COVID-19 pandemic in England presents findings to identify key characteristics of remote home monitoring models for COVID-19 exploring the important role it has for patients and staff experiences

The Health Foundation Long Read 28 January 2021 NHS Reform: Five key questions about the future of primary care networks in England

British Medical Journal article 3 December 2020 by Gareth Lacobucci:  Vertical integration of hospitals and GPs has saved some practices but should not be imposed, study finds

Blog by Manni Sidhu and Jon Sussex: The RAND blog 7 December 2020 Can Primary Care Networks and Models of Vertical Integration Coexist in the NHS?

Blog by Manni Sidhu and Jon Sussex: Health Service Journal 1 December 2020 How hospitals could step in to help manage GP practices

British Medical Journal article 21 November 2020, Adrian O'Dowd Primary care networks: More effort is needed to engage with General Practices, says report

Blog by Manni Sidhu: GP Online 16 November 2020 Can PCNs overcome the challenges facing rural primary care

GP Online article 16 November 2020, Luke Haynes Rural Practices Struggling to deliver 'urban-focused' PCN targets, NIHR report warns

Blog by Sarah Parkinson: BJGP Life, 11 November 2020, Primary care networks in a time of pandemic

Blog by Judith Smith: Health Service Journal 10 November 2020 Primary care networks: getting into their stride? 

Health Service Journal Exclusive 10 November 2020, Jasmine Rapson Confusion and tensions over PCNs despite their 'early operational success'

Blog by Manni Sidhu: Sidhu MS (2019) : "The trade-off between rigour and real-world evidence needs" BRACE Rapid Evaluation Centre comment.

Comment by Judith Smith and Amelia Harshfield : Health Service Journal 10 September 2019 : "Primary Care Networks: A marathon not a sprint"

Pre-prints

A collaboration between BRACE and RSET has evaluated Covid Oximetry @Home: Examining disparities relating to service reach and patient engagement with COVID-19 remote home monitoring services in England: a mixed methods rapid evaluation February 2022

Reviews

A collaboration between BRACE and RSET presents findings from the study to identify key characteristics of remote home monitoring models for COVID-19 exploring the important role it has for patients and staff experiences The implementation of remote home monitoring models during the COVID-19 pandemic in England, March 2021

Colleagues from BRACE and RSET describe the rapid prioritisation methods both teams have used to identify and prioritise adult social care and social work innovations for evaluation Rapid prioritisation of topics for rapid evaluation: the case of innovations in adult social care and social work | Health Research Policy and Systems, March 2021

Holly Walton and Amelia Harshfield for BRACE: Innovations in Adult Social Care and Social Work Report, November 2019