The Research Excellence Framework is the system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. As part of this system, universities are required to submit ‘impact case studies’ to demonstrate the impact of their research on wider economy and society.
REF Impact Case Studies
Demonstrating Plymouth Institute of Health and Care Research (PIHR) knowledge mobilisation impact through REF Impact Case Studies
PIHR case study examples
Jackie Andrade’s work shows how research on consciousness can lead to real-world changes in medical practice (anaesthesia).
Sheena Asthana and Alex Gibson have challenged longstanding and taken-for-granted assumptions around health funding which has resulted in a major redistribution of NHS funding.
Phillip Buckhurst’s work on intraocular lens assessment and ophthalmic instrumentation has produced new image analysis methods for assessing the stability of intraocular lenses implanted during cataract surgery, which have been used in clinical trials leading to FDA approval.
Marie Bryce and colleagues have identified critical challenges presented by the implementation of medical revalidation, including doctors’ difficulties in collecting supporting information and variation in local requirements and decision-making processes. In response to these findings, the General Medical Council clarified its requirements and made changes to its guidance documents.
Matthew Cramp’s work has influenced NICE guidelines for the treatment of Hepatitis C by showing that specific anti-virals cure Hepatitis C infection in over 95% of cases.
Judy Edworthy has led work on the development and testing of new alarms that meet global medical device safety standards in order to combat ‘alarm fatigue’, a problem recognized throughout clinical care as a safety issue relevant to both staff and patients, as well as an important issue for the multi-billion dollar medical device industry.
Watch a video of Judy's work.Jennifer Freeman’s and Jonathan Marsden's development of an innovative pelvic orthotic product for pelvic girdle dysfunction has enhanced sporting performance, for example in medal winning Paralympian sports as diverse as athletics, paracycling and canoeing. The product has also improved pain control for pregnant women.
Jeremy Hobart's research programme focuses on the development of Patient Reported Outcome measures (PROs) for clinical research, trials and drug licensing. The scales he has developed for assessing Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are among a limited number contained in the United States Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) compendium of Clinical Outcomes Assessments. Since 2014 Hobart has developed new scales in MS and Stroke and worked as part of the LORA group to support scale development in dermatology (hyperhidrosis), urology (nocturia) and haematology (sickle cell symptom severity).
Helen Lloyd has led a team the development of a model, toolkit, and guidance to implement Person Centred Care through a programme of mixed methods research and collaboration within NHS settings. Within this model, patients are viewed as people with capabilities that can be harnessed through personalised goal setting to improve self-management and self-efficacy. Goals are then used to drive a coordinated service response. This is a radical shift from the traditional view of patients as passive recipients of care. Lloyd’s work on co-ordinated, person-centered healthcare has led to changes in government policy and health service practice.
Mona Nasser identifies and evaluates methods to ensure resources are allocated to research projects that are relevant to stakeholders, meet high scientific quality standards and avoid wasteful investment. These innovative methods have been incorporated into guidelines of the World Health Organisation and Cochrane.
Carl Roobottom’s work has led to NICE recommending Cardiac Computed Tomographic Angiography as the primary diagnostic tool for all chest-pain patients in the UK, 340,000 patients per annum.
Simon Rule has shown that specific novel therapies for Mantle Cell lymphoma double mean life expectancy, leading to international licensing (90 countries worldwide) with over 200,000 patients worldwide treated.
Based in the School of Engineering, Computing & Mathematics, Yinghui Wei's research on novel medical statistics has involved informing the World Health Organisation, Public Health England and Australia's Victorian Health Promotion Agency about the effectiveness of reducing portion size in weight management. It also included creating a statistical package that reduces the time and costs of individual participant survival data collection required for health technology assessments. A third aspect of her work consisted of a statistical analysis that enabled kidney transplant doctors to understand the change of survival benefit of transplants over time, thus assisting them with their decision-making about treatment options and communication with patients.