Health Services Research Centre
The HSRC oversees delivery of the College's research projects
The Health Services Research Centre (HSRC) is the national centre of excellence for health services research in anaesthesia and associated specialties. Its purpose is to define, evaluate and improve quality in anaesthesia, perioperative care and pain management.
The Health Services Research Centre (HSRC), launched in 2011, is the national centre of excellence for health services research in anaesthesia and associated specialties. Its purpose is to define, evaluate and improve quality in anaesthesia, perioperative care and pain management. The HSRC oversees the delivery of all College research projects.
Aims
- Defining quality
- Evaluating quality
- Improving quality
- Developing people
Click here to read the HSRC's Strategy for 2017-2022.
Work
The HSRC is governed by its Executive Management Board. Members include the leads for its constituent projects, including:
- National Audit Projects (NAPs)
- National Emergency Laparotomy Audit (NELA)
- Perioperative Quality Improvement Programme (PQIP)
- Sprint National Anaesthesia Projects (SNAPs)
- Children's Acute Surgical Abdomen Programme (CASAP)
- Core Outcome Measures in Perioperative and Anaesthetic Care (COMPAC).
The Board has several trainee members, who are either undertaking research linked to one of these core projects, or are representatives of the Research and Audit Federation of Trainees or the National Institute for Academic Anaesthesia.
What is Health Services Research?
Health Services Research (HSR) is most easily described as research directly involving patients or groups of patients, but excluding early phase clinical studies, which are now commonly referred to as 'experimental medicine'.
It can be more formally defined as research which aims to improve patient outcomes (safety, effectiveness and experience) and evaluate the organisation, management, finances, and delivery of healthcare. HSR encompasses clinical epidemiology and clinical trials to demonstrate the effectiveness of interventions (phase III, health technology assessment).
Basic science (animal and 'bench-top') studies and early stage safety and efficacy clinical trials (phase I & II) are generally not considered to be HSR.
Would you like to know more about the HSRC?
For more information on the activities of the Health Services Research Centre, including the latest projects in development, please visit the HSRC website.
Iain is an Associate Professor and Honorary Consultant Anaesthetist at the University of Nottingham and Nottingham University Hospitals. He has served on the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Anaesthesia since 2010. Iain's primary academic interests are in improving outcomes for older patients undergoing surgery and in perioperative patient safety, delirium and post-operative cognition. His safety work encompasses ergonomics of anaesthetic practice and the risks associated with surgical Never Events.
We are delighted to announce that Dr Sarah Hare has been appointed as Deputy Director of the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia (NIAA) Health Services Research Centre (HSRC). Dr Hare will take up the appointment with effect from 1st April 2022.
Dr Hare brings a wealth of experience from her role as Clinical Lead for the National Emergency Laparotomy Audit (NELA). She is a Consultant Anaesthetist based at Medway NHS Foundation Trust. Dr Hare states that "I am thrilled to be joining the team at HSRC. I am looking forward to working with local hospital teams, in making health services research become "business as usual" for Anaesthetists and the wider perioperative MDT when we look after our patients; be them adults or children, requiring emergency or elective surgery."
