Birmingham Lung Improvement Studies

07/08/2012

Well we may have been quiet on facebook, but it's been a busy few months for the BLISS team. We have now finished piloting our cohort study and have successfully completed appointments in our first 12 GP practices. This means we have seen and completed spirometry lung function tests on over 160 patients! This has taken a lot of hard work from our enthusiastic research assistants and our dedicated office staff. We are now ready to move onto the next 20 practices and keep the momentum going!

31/05/2012

The BLISS team are celebrating today as we successfully visited our first patient this morning and completed the baseline assessment. There will be more patient appointments tomorrow morning and next week, so its full steam ahead now!

25/04/2012

Come down to University Centre at the Edgbsaton campus today and meet some of our BLISS research assistants who will be there practising our cascot software on willing volunteers- This involves a few quick questions about your employment and job role. There are even some sweets available as a thank you for anyone kind enough to stop!

20/04/2012

Dr Shamil Haroon, PhD student on our BLISS programme, is running the Rotary Shakespeare Half Marathon to support UNICEF. Please help support a wonderful cause by donating to him at: http://fundraise.unicef.org.uk/MyPage/Shamil-Haroon-Rotary-Shakespeare-Half-Marathon-for-UNICEF

UNICEF is one of the world's leading organisations working to improve the lives of children across the globe. They have a presence in over 190 countries and territories and deliver programmes in more than 150 less-developed countries around the world. UNICEF relies entirely on voluntary donations to...

02/04/2012

The BLISS team have just finished the second of two successful 'Introductory meetings', the first having taken place last Friday 30th March 2012. Aimed at GP practices interested in particpating in our study, we presented our 3 work packages to them following a delicious buffet lunch. Today's meeting saw the addition of a talk by lung function expert Dr Martin Miller which was both an interesting and informative look at the importance of accurate lung function readings.

13/03/2012

13/03/2012

On 20-22nd June 2012 the BLISS team will be heading to the Birmingham ICC for 'COPD8'- an International Conference on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

The conference is aimed at the breadth of the COPD spectrum from basic science through to clinical practice and what people living with the condition need and want. COPD8 will provide new and interesting information for all delegates and encourage lively debate and discussion.

The team are submitting poster abstracts and are looking forward to the opportunity to showcase the work of the BLISS programme as well as to mingle with other researchers and COPD experts.

http://www.copdconferences.org/

An international meeting on COPD

09/03/2012

The BLISS team will be visiting the Research Showcase today at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. As a study funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) we are keen to promote the role of research in the NHS, so if you are there keep your eye out for us and our BLISS leaflets!

Come along to the hospital today (Friday 9 March) and find out how research in Birmingham is helping to prevent and cure disease.

01/03/2012

Our very active Patient Advisory Group (PAG) came to visit us at our BLISS offices last week and met some of our research assistants. All being COPD patients themselves the group have been invaluable in the past helping us develop our patient letters and questionnaires. This time they kindly agreed to have our research assistants use them as guinea pigs for some practice appointments which invovled the physiological meausres we will be asking participants in the study to complete. It was a fun day with our team able to mingle with the PAG over lunch as well as being a very useful exercise!

16/02/2012

This week the BLISS team have been involved in the University's 'Research taster experience' sessions for medical students. The sessions were designed to introduce the students to the world of research and give them a taster of what is involved in a research study. Dr Rachel Jordan, one of the BLISS chief investigators, gave the students a brief presentation on our programme and the rationaled behind our research into COPD. The students then had the opportunity to participate in some of our physiological measures as pseudo patients. It was a fun afternoon with the students getting to experience spirometry lung function testing, sit to stand endurance tests, as well as getting their BP, height and weight measured.

19/01/2012

BLISS Research Assistants L-R: Gill Wall, Nicola Adderley, Monique Jhass, Marti Batki, Simon White, Norma Bakewell, (Front row) Verity Griffiths and Laura Jordan

16/01/2012

An update on how World COPD Day 2011 was marked across the globe....

World COPD Day in Your CountrySelect a country in the list at right to see World COPD Day activities planned f..

05/01/2012

Happy New Year! the BLISS team are back at the University feeling refreshed from our break and January is looking like a busy month already. Our research fellows Dr Backman and Dr Dickens are busy visiting GP practices around Birmingham to present our study and hopefully recruit them to BLISS. Contracts are flowing in from practices who want to sign up and we are putting the finishing touches to our research assistants training.

15/12/2011

Thanks to everyone who came to our Afternoon Tea event, we had around 30 people, from across the primary care and public health departments at the University, joining us for tea and cake. The research assistants were on hand with Spirometry equipment and managed to persuade most of the visitors to participate in the lung testing. Some members of the BLISS patient advisory group also popped along and so the RA’s gained some valuable experience in taking the measurements.

25/11/2011

Come and join us next wednesday 30th Nov 1-3pm for BLISS team's Afternoon Tea. We will have tea/coffee,cake and our research assistants will be performing free spirometry lung function tests!

24/11/2011