By Professor Krysia Dziedzic, Director of the Keele Impact Accelerator Unit. This article first appeared as a Personally Speaking column in the Stoke Sentinel on 29th September, 2022.

Would you be surprised to know that it takes on average 17 years for health research to get picked up in practice in the NHS? In our day-to-day business of doing research at Keele University we hadn’t spotted that there was a big lag between our research and its use in every day healthcare. We knew that something had to be done.

Over the past 30 years, Keele University in partnership with the Haywood Hospital, General Practices and our local populations in Staffordshire, Shropshire, and South Cheshire, has produced world leading research into joint pain and arthritis. There was an urgent need to think not only about the next research study but also about how could we accelerate the uptake of our research for the benefit of those who needed it.

In 2015 we formed a team and brought together a whole range of people with different expertise, including researchers, patients and the public, health professionals (GPs, physiotherapists, practice nurses, pharmacists), commissioners and managers of services, health informatics, statisticians, a journalist and those working with industry.

We harnessed our different skills to think through how best we could take research published in world leading scientific journals and treatment guidelines, and distribute it in ways that that would work for patients and the NHS. We decided to create an Impact Accelerator Unit in the School of Medicine to do just that.

Of course, we didn't need to look far for inspiration for our Unit. In the Potteries Josiah Wedgwood was a meticulous researcher in his field but he never left his research locked away in his cabinet. Wedgwood worked out how to bring his research into fabulous dinner services and everyday pieces of tableware. Pieces that were treasured but used in everyday life.

Then Wedgwood championed the development of canal networks to ensure that his precious porcelain could be transported safely to different places where it could be used. We have championed networks too: a Link Group of patient and public members; a group of health professionals who discover new insights into evidence-based practice; and through Keele Deal ǀ Health we have a musculoskeletal community where all voices can be heard.

Wedgwood, an abolitionist, also reminds us of the importance of allyship and being inclusive and we have a dedicated Race Equality Ambassador for our Public Involvement.

Along the way we have learnt two important lessons. Firstly, the power of inspirational individuals - local patients and health care professionals - who know instinctively how research knowledge could make a difference. These are our knowledge mobilisers or knowledge brokers. Secondly, the impact of distributing that knowledge as useable information.

For example, we have produced YouTube videos to explain the findings of a local study of occupational therapy for hand osteoarthritis funded by Versus Arthritis that recruited over 12,000 people. They show us what we understand by osteoarthritis, what exercises to try and gadgets to take the strain from painful hand joints. 

We have worked with the Haywood Hospital with funding from the Health Foundation to produce a website for people with back pain affecting their mood, with information for health and care professionals.

And we have worked with the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy to translate a decade of research into joint pain as a document talking about ‘Seeking Help, Getting Treatment, and Staying Well’ with musculoskeletal conditions. 

On my way to Keele as I pass by Stoke Minster where Wedgwood is buried I have a constant reminder of inspirational, local people. As Keele University has a high vantage point looking across Staffordshire, South Cheshire and Shropshire, I’m reminded of the urgency of our knowledge mobilisation and that gives me the inspiration to write the next grant to secure the funding to help us on our way.

If you want to be part of our network, then please make contact. If you come with funding, we’d be delighted to relieve you of that too and put it to good use. As an entrepreneur Wedgwood would expect nothing less