INNOVATIVE ways of improving patient care at GP surgeries is being backed with a new £30m research programme headed by Oxford University.

Researchers are looking at ways in which patients can use new technology, including mobile phone apps, to monitor their own conditions to cut down on the number of visits they need to make to the surgery.

The university will continue to lead the next five-year phase of the National Institute for Health Research School for Primary Care Research (SPCR) programme, supported by £30m of funding. Carl Heneghan is university professor of evidence-based medicine in the Nuffield department of primary care health sciences and also works part-time as a GP at Manzil Way health centre off Cowley Road.

He said: “People can use new technology including mobile phones for more coordinated care. Patients with diabetes can use a mobile phone app to monitor their own blood-glucose levels and then text in the results.

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“The research is designed to create more capacity in general practice.

“We have an ageing population and want to diagnose conditions earlier so we need to think of using new technology and new and innovative ways of delivering health care.”

Since its 2006 launch, 252 research projects and 85 trainees have been funded by the SPCR.

Oxford University academic clinical research lecturer Dr Kay Wang has been conducting research into the need for an additional whooping cough vaccine for adolescents.


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