Current research areas

Emergency care research focuses on improving patient outcomes in emergency and urgent care and is highly applied and patient-focused. It includes out-of-hospital settings as well as primary, community and out-of-hours care.

Pre-hospital care

Our pre-hospital care research focuses on all aspects of the out-of-hospital environment, particularly the care provided by ambulance service clinicians. Areas of research are varied and range from airway management in cardiac arrest to health promotion and safely reducing hospital admissions to support the delivery of emergency care closer to home. This research area also encompasses the complex health needs of an ageing population.

Adult secondary care

This research area assesses new technologies and techniques in emergency care, including diagnostics. It also aims to improve the management of major trauma across all age groups while developing patient centred interventions.

Paediatric emergency care

We aim to improve patient outcomes through research, innovative practice and system and workforce redesign in paediatric emergency care through inter-professional collaboration. This includes the early management of life-threatening illness in children such as asthma and seizures as well as innovative ways to assess and manage common problems such as head injury.

Urgent primary care

We conduct high quality primary care research with a multidisciplinary approach including the evaluation of how urgent primary health care services are delivered. Our work in this area aims to respond to patient needs and deliver improvements in care and patient experience. One area of interest involves investigating the impact of drugs and alcohol, and the potential for reducing their harms. We also examine ways of reducing avoidable hospital admissions and the degree of safety-netting advice and documentation.

Research and service delivery

As populations continue to grow and evolve, the way users interact with services changes; emergency and urgent care systems and workforce require redesign and redevelopment in response to changing demands on services. We work with members of the public, patients and clinicians to evaluate existing systems as well as in the design and evaluation of innovative design solutions in urgent and emergency care.