Study protocol
The National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) for Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland (LNR): a programme protocol
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* Corresponding author: Richard Baker rb14@le.ac.uk
1 Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
2 School of Psychology, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
3 Northamptonshire Primary Care Trust, Northampton, UK
4 Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
5 Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
6 University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicester, UK
7 NIHR CLAHRC for LNR, UK
Implementation Science 2009, 4:72 doi:10.1186/1748-5908-4-72
Published: 12 November 2009Abstract
Background
In October 2008, the National Institute for Health Research launched nine new research projects to develop and investigate methods of translating research evidence into practice. Given the title Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC), all involve collaboration between one or more universities and the local health service, but they are adopting different approaches to achieve translation.
Methods
The translation and implementation programme of this CLAHRC has been built around a pragmatic framework for undertaking research to address live concerns in the delivery of care, in partnership with the managers, practitioners, and patients of the provider organisations of the CLAHRC. Focused on long-term conditions, the constituent research themes are prevention, early detection, self-management, rehabilitation, and implementation. Individual studies have various designs, and include both randomised trials of new ways to deliver care and qualitative studies of, for example, means of identifying barriers to research translation. A mix of methods will be used to evaluate the CLAHRC as a whole, including use of public health indicators, social research methods, and health economics.
Discussion
This paper describes one of the nine collaborations, that of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, and Rutland. Drawing a distinction between translation as an organising principle for healthcare providers and implementation as a discrete activity, this collaboration is built on a substantial programme of applied research intended to create both research generation and research use capacity in provider organisations. The collaboration in Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, and Rutland has potential to provide evidence on how partnerships between practitioners, patients, and researchers can improve the transfer of evidence into practice.