Aim
To maximise the quantity, quality and impact of rehabilitation research carried out in Scotland by assisting its prioritisation, initiation, design, dissemination and implementation, by networking members and by promoting its impact on policy and practice.
Overall objective
The need to design our service delivery on a robust evidence base is a well establish concept. While we have a number of high quality Rehabilitation Researchers across Scotland who can contribute much to this agenda, they tend to be relatively isolated, lacking mentorship, resources for research and facing considerable organisational, intellectual and physical barriers to the conduct of their valuable research.
While as a community we have undertaken a considerable number of pilot and phase two trials none of these trials, to our knowledge, has as yet been taken forward to phase three multi-centre trials and subsequently into routine practice. If our research is going to impact on future policy and practice we must progress it to these later stages of the MRC framework by working research partners across Scotland. Key partners in the Network will be Clinical AHPs and the academic staff from the universities in Scotland providing AHP education and relevant research facility or skills.
Bioengineers from the academic sector (Strathclyde) and the NHS (West MARC and SMART centre) will assist the researchers in the network with underpinning science and engineering knowledge. The clinical trials unit in Aberdeen will support our trial design and methodological developments.
We will also work closely with the CRF’s across Scotland to ensure that these developments are supported by suitable quality research data and staff. The Centre for Excellence in Rehabilitation Research [CERR] at Strathclyde has been asked to initiate the formation of this network and help to support its development. We hope our endeavours will culminate in the creation of an appropriate rehabilitation organisation in Scotland such as a Scottish College of Rehabilitation.
Our initial vision, aims, objectives and research clusters were formulated by an open series of 5 workshops hosted by the
University of Strathclyde between January and April 2013. .
Specific objectives
- Encourage relevant multi-disciplinary rehabilitation research
- Provide access to methodological expertise for rehabilitation research
- Bring together members with similar interests into sub-groups of rehabilitation research
- Encourage mixed methods rehabilitation research studies which include qualitative and quantitative approaches
- Prosper knowledge related to complex interventions in rehabilitation research
- Assist and guide service delivery models of rehabilitation through research
- Assist rehabilitation research into practice
- Help connect members who may then apply for rehabilitation research funding
- Lobby government and others to facilitate rehabilitation research
- Encourage innovation and service change in rehabilitation through research
- Promote rehabilitation research which can assist users with long term conditions
- Encourage the involvement of users and third party organisations in Rehabilitation Research
- Encourage the inclusion of Physical, Psychological and Social factors in Rehabilitation Research
- Encourage the assessment of impairment, activity and participation domains in rehabilitation research
- Promote the adoption of new technology in rehabilitation research
Interim SRRN committee
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