hsru_news_stories - Keele University

New Research Fellowship to study Co-morbidity in Hearth Failure Patients

Claire_Rushton_175x220 A three year full time Doctoral Research Fellowship from the National Institute for Health Research has been awarded to Claire Rushton (Lecturer in Nursing & Midwifery) under the lead of Dr Umesh Kadam (Health Services Research Unit). Both are members of the RI for Science & Technology in Medicine and Primary Care Health Sciences. Claire's project will investigate comorbidity and changing prognosis in heart failure patients using two main approaches: an analysis using general practice databases and a new cohort study of 400 patients at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a chronic disease which is increasing in the older population - up to 15% of people aged 85+ experience the condition and this trend is set to rise over the next 25 years - and 30% die within 6 months of diagnosis. Among older people, CHF is one of the most common causes of consultation in general practice, and its treatment is complicated by other conditions such as recent stroke, diabetes, atrial fibrillation or renal impairment.

The project is the latest example of studies of such co-morbidity by Keele's Health Services Research Unit (HSRU) which is building up international expertise on the effect of one disease and treatment on another. It will lead to comorbidity prognostic measures for transitions from general practice to hospital care, and Claire will further develop links with HSRU's partners in Vrije University, Amsterdam and Linkoping University, Sweden.

Supervision of Claire's project is led by Dr Umesh Kadam and members of the Keele HSRU team, including Prof Peter Jones, Prof Simon Davies and Prof Julius Sim, as well as Pauline Walsh (Head of Nursing School). The NIHR award of £300,000 covers the training and collaboration costs.