We are delighted to have been shortlisted for a British Medical Journal award for innovation. We’ve been selected alongside a cohort of inspirational healthcare teams and services who work in and alongside the NHS. Here, we handpick a few of the diverse and often life-saving projects that have been nominated for this year’s awards...
Donate Life
Donate Life is a service set up by Belfast Health and Social Care Trust which facilitates kidney donation. The service helps pairs of people, usually related to one another - one who is in need of a kidney and one who is willing to donate one. It also directs people to sign up to the Organ Donor Register to be able to donate after their death. Amazingly, though, it has also helped people to receive kidneys from complete strangers who have chosen to donate them altruistically.
FREED
FREED is an initiative set up by SLAM to trial early intervention in Eating Disorder patients. As Ulrike Schmidt, professor of eating disorders at KCL, said: “if you had a child with cancer, you wouldn’t wait until they had reached stage four cancer before starting treatment. It’s no different with an eating disorder”. The cost of waiting to start treatment can be high but through early intervention FREED has managed to decrease dropout rates and speed up weight gain in anorexia patients who begin treatment within three years of developing the illness.
Talk CPR
The Talk CPR project, run by Velindre NHS Trust, aims to encourage patients with palliative and terminal conditions to discuss CPR procedures with their clinicians. CPR is often resorted to by default but can be a dangerous intervention, often resulting in broken bones and other significant injuries. It also has a very low success rate, especially amongst cancer patients and people over the age of 80, so the decision to opt out is complex but can result in more dignity for the patient.
Kairos Rehabilitation
The Kairos Rehabilitation Model has been developed at Vanbrugh Extended Community Pain Management Clinic to treat patients struggling with chronic pain. The clinic addresses the intersection between chronic pain and social issues, claiming that “when social, educational, financial, work-related and benefits issues are individually addressed, new confidence, self esteem and daring may arise”, making it a really unique project.
We’re looking forward to meeting some of the people behind all of this year’s shortlisted entries at the awards ceremony on 4th April 2017 - good luck everyone! Check out the full shortlist on the BMJ Awards site