A Problem Shared...

Last week was a week of collaborations and discussions a variety of unexpected sources. At the start of the week I connected with a senior lecturer from the Birmingham City University to discuss backlog maintenance and its effect on infection control. A conversation which gave me a number of avenues to explore in relation to both the role hospital air handling units play in both the reduction and spread of air borne pathogens.

I then had the opportunity to discuss my project with one of my Trust’s senior managers, putting the research into context of other work happening within the Trust. Just talking through the project with a colleague who regularly undertakes research in their environment enforced the importance of continual research in all parts of healthcare, not just clinical.

I topped last week off with a wonderful conversation with a final year master’s student who has undertaken similar research to myself, looking at the effect backlog maintenance has on the patient journey. I learnt that while there have been no published articles on our research subject matter to date, there are a number of research students looking at this problem from many different angles – be it human factors, engineering or a management angle.

As the saying goes, it is great to talk, and I look forward to many more conversations in 2023!

Happy Christmas everyone.

David