1. Managing your PhD for applied health research students
Professor Elaine McColl (with thanks to Dr Lindsay Pennington)

2. Applied health research
Complex questions
prevalence, severity and impact of disease
acceptability and effectiveness of interventions
cost effectiveness, efficiency
Aim to inform policy makers, healthcare providers, patients and public

3. Multiple methods – quantitative and qualitative
Mixed methods, synthesis of evidence
Multiple supervisors:
Topic expert
Quantitative expert
Qualitative expert

4. Planning
The Research Question, Aims and Objectives should inform and determine the methods and the project plan
Resource constraints (personnel, time, money, physical resources) may necessitate modification of the plan from ‘the ideal’
3 months from registration to develop project proposal, to include
Project plan
Gantt chart
Your training needs and plans

6. Managing your project Aims Objectives Methods Design
Timing – prioritisation, duration
Resources – time, money, personnel, equipment
Risk management
Project management session 16 November

7. Managing others Supervisors
Gate-keepers to identification and recruitment of participants
Clinicians
Voluntary sector
Local authority
Participants
To make your project successful you will be managing others as well as your project
Your project may succeed or fail on this – you may have a great idea, be able to write fantastic literature review and appraise extant evidence relative to your subject and analyse your data but unless you can persuade others to work with you you won’t have any data!

8. Understand their priorities
Get to know them
Understand their priorities
Work with them – give them something in return
Agree timescales
Keep them invested
Agree methods of communication
Update them
Everybody will have multiple call son their time, not just you. Your project will be interesting but not necessarily import or urgent for them
PPI session 24 May 2017
Social media session 7 November 2016
Communication and presentation skills session 15 May 2017

9. Patient and Public Involvement
Involving appropriate patient/carer representatives and/or members of the public at all stages from design to dissemination is likely to enhance the work
Methods of and routes to PPI need to be tailored to your specific study and its setting
See INVOLVE –
See also FMS Engagement Team -

10. Research governance
Be aware of and abide by the Research Governance Framework for Health and Social Care – see e/139565/dh_ pdf (an update is due to be released very soon)
Sponsorship
University?
NHS?
Ethics approval
HRA approval (what used to be NHS R&D approval)
Good Clinical Practice
See also research/
NHS ethics and research gov takes at least 3 months

11. Study sponsorship
HRA guidance - see projects/assessment-approval/student-studies-led-england/ - suggests that the sponsor of studies being undertaken of an educational award, including doctoral level studies, is likely to be the student’s university.
Local guidance is that the decision on whether Newcastle University or an NHS Trust should be sponsor depends on who the study participants are.
If they are NHS patients (or their tissue or data), it will further depend on the level of involvement the research student has with the patients, with decisions being made on a case-by-case basis. Most usually, the sponsoring NHS Trust would be NUTH NHS Foundation Trust.
Early contact should be made to and to enquire about who will take on the role of sponsorship

12. Ethics approval
ALL projects go through the university’s initial ethical review.  This can be done via the on-line Lime survey system at ethics.limequery.com/index.php/445487/lang-en or via e-portfolio. 
From there the system will signal one of the following:
No further review is needed – no triggers triggered!
Further information for the Animal Welfare Ethics Review Board to consider (unlikely for applied health research studies) and/or
Leave the university system and follow the HRA (and IRAS) route for NHS REC or Social Care REC approval OR
Continue through the on-line form for NU full ethical review and approval.
 If an NHS REC responds with “no opinion as it is Service Evaluation” then the researcher needs to go back to the university Lime Survey system and respond as though they are proposing to involve “humans in a non-clinical setting”.

13. Other “bureaucracy”
If conducting research on NHS patients, staff and premises and you are NOT a healthcare professional doing research within your own NHS Trust, you may need a research passport – see passports.htm
In turn this may require clearance from DBS and/or Occupational Health
All this takes time
If conducting research outwith the NHS but with other vulnerable populations in the UK (e.g. children, elderly) likely to need to go through Disclosure and Barring Service check – see barring-service/about

14. Good Clinical Practice (GCP)
For NHS sponsored studies, involving NHS patients, staff, tissue or data, the sponsor is likely to mandate completion of GCP training for those without a valid (i.e. < 3 years old) GCP certificate
For all other studies involving human subjects, GCP training is not mandatory, but is recommended.
Free training, either group-based in-person courses or online training, is provided free of charge via NIHR CRN Learn – see
If you have previously undergone GCP training, one of the half-day refresher courses will suffice. 
If this is the first time of you undertaking GCP training, you will need to do the full Introduction to GCP face-to-face course, or the online equivalent (selecting primary or secondary care as appropriate to your individual research study). 
The website provides details of course dates and of how to register for the on-line training (using address), which can be undertaken in your own time. 

15. Lab books/Research notebooks
Issues
Decisions
Justification
Evidence from previous research
Actions
Results
Personnel involved
They remain the property of the University
Already mentioned by Alison Tyson Capper on Tuesday 4 Oct
Very important
all info in one place
record of the project
can check back on decisions and their justification
can be checked after project completion

16. Data collection
You may be out of the University for some time (may require completion of ‘study outwith’ form)
Travel risk assessment must be completed if you are travelling outside the UK for data collection
Appropriate safety measures should be put in place if you are doing fieldwork in the UK
Regular communication with supervisors:
Deal with issues as they arise
Use time wisely:
Write methods section whilst involved in ‘doing it’
Make notes for Discussion – strengths and limitations, impact of methods and design
Risk assessment form – session in I.H.S and others

17. Writing Start now! Learned skill, takes practice
Figures and tables can be slotted into thesis
Agree the papers that will come from the thesis
Agree when papers will be written and submitted
Also advised by Alison
It’s never too early
More you write better you’ll be

18. Disseminating your work
Start now!
Learned skill, takes practice
Who do you want to influence?
Best medium?
When?
Internal seminars, Conferences, External meetings
Training for presenting
Public speaking 2 and 3 November 2016
Find out what the societies are that you should join
Find out when their meetings are
What types of presentations do they accept
When is it best for you to present
Write these into the Gantt chart and project plan
Add to your e-portfolio training

19. Challenges Complex methods, complex projects
NHS Trust approval – research sites, governance
These all take time
Project management essential
Juggling
Networking
Negotiation
Loneliness
3 years for project to be planned, executed and written up FT PhD
6 years PT PhD
These soft skills are key to project completion
Skills that are highly describable in academia, research and industry
Loneliness – you aren’t alone, peer support groups Eg IHS group, PANIC, PRISM; RAs, supervisors. Work with others, make the most of break out times eg coffee times, get to know staff as well as other students. Join in!

20. Support for students GOOD LUCK! Supervisors
PGR team – PGRSC and administrators
Assessors
Grad School Research Student Development Programme
GOOD LUCK!
Formal support
You can do it
Supervisors will support you to do it – they want to help you
University will support you – APR, PGRSC
Make the most of the opportunities
Be savvy
Good luck!