02/01/2019

North East Ambulance Service

 

About NEAS

North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (NEAS) covers 3,200 square miles across the North East region. It employs more than 2,600 staff and serves a population of 2.7 million people by handling all NHS111 and 999 calls for the region, operating patient transport and ambulance response services, delivering training for communities and commercial audiences and providing medical support cover at events.

NEAS’ vision is ‘Unmatched quality of care, every time we touch lives’.

Even in the most challenging situations we will strive to perform to the highest professional standards in a spirit of collaboration and teamwork, no matter what the circumstances. We will be acknowledged as the leading specialist care provider when looking after the patients in our care.

Research at NEAS

NEAS sponsors their own studies as well as working in collaboration with a number of universities, e.g. Newcastle, Sunderland, Teesside, and Northumbria. We also work in collaboration with a range of partners including the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the National Ambulance Research Steering Group (NARSG). We actively support staff to conduct their own research and support student projects including MSc and PhD studies.

For more information please visit NEAS website.

Current Research Projects

  • A populaTion based study exploring a cOmmunity hyPerCholesterolemia intervention in north eAsT england (TOPCAT)
    This population-based study is a single centre, prospective cohort feasibility study. The aim of this study is to determine if an early intervention delivered by a paramedic can identify adult patients at risk of hypercholesterolemia in a cohort of older adults residing in South Tees, and if the early intervention leads to earlier statin therapy. 

This study will use questionnaires and interviews with members of the public to explore their knowledge, perceptions and attitudes towards BCPR, and we will use this information to help develop new initiatives designed to improve rates of BCPR in North East England and North Cumbria.

  • Research Paramedic Experiences – A qualitative study exploring the experiences of research paramedics working in the UK
    This is a qualitative study exploring the experiences of research paramedics working in the UK.


This study aims to explore the use of real time ventilation feedback during out of hospital cardiac arrest, and whether this improves the quality of ventilations delivered by the clinician and if this leads to improved patient outcomes.

  • Prehospital stroke time study – Describing the events and decision making that contribute to on-scene times with prehospital stroke patients
    This study will explore how ambulance clinicians spend their time with suspected stroke patients in order to inform future work to minimise the time spent in the prehospital setting.

Previously conducted research projects

  • NORth East Ambulance Service frailty project (NORA)
    This research involved a cohort of 100 study trained operational staff who collected routine data for all patients aged 50 years > = and calculated a clinical frailty score on the day of the contact, and a score for 2 weeks prior.

The purpose of this body of work was to highlight the lack of evidence behind current immobilisation practices while concurrently gathering data regarding the consequences of ‘traditional’ immobilisation in the pre-hospital environment.

  • PaRamEDic assessment of lactate in out of hospital cardiac arrest: measuring the association with survival to hospital (PREDICT)

The aim of this study was to determine if a blood lactate measurement during resuscitation attempt taken by a paramedic can predict if a patient who suffered a cardiac arrest will survive to hospital.

Latest / significant publications

NEAS research contact details

If you’re interested in doing research with North East Ambulance Service, please get in touch:

Michelle Jackson – Research and Development Manager
Michelle.jackson@neas.nhs.uk
North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
Bernicia House, Newburn Riverside Business Park
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE15 8NY
0191 230 2000

Research@neas.nhs.uk

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