News
Study identifies hip implant materials with the lowest risk of needing revision
Hip implants with a delta ceramic or oxidised zirconium head and highly crosslinked polyethylene liner or cup had the lowest risk of revision during the 15 years after surgery, a new study led by the University of Bristol has found. The research could help hospitals, surgeons and…
Recommendations framework for developing accessible patient information leaflets
Researchers at the NIHR Bristol BRC have worked in partnership with National Voices, marginalised community groups and patients to develop a framework of 74 recommendations aimed at designing accessible patient information leaflets for clinical trials. The recommendations are divided into five topics: formatting, information presentation, writing style,…
Addressing frailty in patients undergoing total hip and knee replacements
Researchers from Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter have demonstrated that it would be possible to use a randomised controlled trial to evaluate a prehabilitation programme for frail adults undergoing total hip or knee replacement. Patients taking part in the Joint PREP (Joint Prehabilitation with Exercise and Protein) study found the programme…
Improving shared decision making in surgery
Shared decision making is when patients and healthcare professionals work together to agree on a treatment plan. It is a collaborative process that aims to make sure patients’ treatment decisions align with their preferences, values and lifestyle. This is particularly important when making decisions to have surgery because the consequences…
Around 160,000 joint replacement surgeries lost by COVID-19 pandemic, study finds
Nearly nine months of joint replacement surgery has been lost – around 160,000 fewer operations – since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study led by the University of Bristol has found. The research suggests returning to pre-pandemic levels will not tackle the backlog, and…
Contributing to the BRC Surgical Innovation Group as a public and patient representative
In this blog post, Val Snelgrove talks about her experience of working as a public and patient representative with a team based at the Bristol BRC’s surgical and orthopaedic innovation theme, training opportunities in public involvement and a Learning for Patient and Public Voice (PPV) course she recently attended. My…
Study highlights challenges in reporting surgical innovation
A study published in the BMJ Open has revealed significant challenges in how surgical innovation is reported and evaluated using the IDEAL framework. The framework, which stands for Idea, Development, Exploration, Assessment, and Long-term study, is designed to guide the development of new surgical procedures and devices.
New guidance helps researchers set up and report on trials using surrogate outcomes
An international team has developed checklists to help researchers while they set up or report on health care trials where surrogate outcomes are used. The study was jointly led by researchers at the University of Glasgow and Bocconi University in Italy, and the reporting checklists and accompanying documentation have been…
Longer hospital wait times are leading to patients accessing more healthcare services
People who are on a waiting list for hospital treatment are accessing healthcare services more than their peers who aren’t awaiting treatment. This means that long waiting lists for elective (scheduled rather than emergency) care could represent a significant and previously unrecognised hidden cost to the health service, according to…