Cecilia Vindrola-Padros

University College London | UCL · Department of Targeted Intervention

The use of research evidence to facilitate improvements in healthcare quality continues to be a topic widely debated by scholars and practitioners.1 ,2 The concept of ‘knowledge mobilisation’ has been developed, with strategies to help bridge this gap.3 These strategies include the development of “a culture of partnership between academic researche...

The 2013–2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa highlighted both the successes and limitations of social science contributions to emergency response operations. An important limitation was the rapid and effective communication of study findings. A systematic review was carried out to explore how rapid qualitative methods have been used during global he...

Background: The ability to capture the complexities of healthcare practices and the quick turnaround of findings make rapid ethnographies appealing to the healthcare sector, where changing organisational climates and priorities require actionable findings at strategic time points. Despite methodological advancement, there continue to be challenges...

Rapid ethnographies are used in a wide range of fields to speed up research quickly and effectively. This book is the first practical guide to rapid ethnographies, helping readers to improve skills in the design, implementation, dissemination and use of findings generated through rapid ethnographic research. It gives advice and guidelines for carry...

Social scientists have a robust history of contributing to better understandings of and responses to disease outbreaks. The implementation of qualitative research in the context of infectious epidemics, however, continues to lag behind in the delivery, credibility, and timeliness of findings when compared with other research designs. The purpose of...

Background During COVID-19 pandemic, a rapid readjustment to continued delivery of healthcare was required. Redeployment is an intentional process to mobilise human resources by reassigning a healthcare worker to a new role or new work location, to achieve sustainable delivery of patient care. We report redeployment experiences of staff from a spec...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for improved infectious aerosol concentrations through interventions that reduce the transmission of airborne infections. The aims of this review were to map the existing literature on interventions used to improve infectious aerosol concentrations in hospitals and understand challenges in their...

Introduction Qualitative data provides deep insights into an individual's behaviors and beliefs, and the contextual factors that may shape these. Big qualitative data analysis is an emerging field that aims to identify trends and patterns in large qualitative datasets. The purpose of this review was to identify the methods used to analyse large bod...

Background Shared decision-making (SDM) is increasingly expected in healthcare systems prioritising patient autonomy. Treatment escalation plans (TEPs) outline contingency for medical intervention in the event of patient deterioration. This study aimed to understand clinicians’ perspectives on SDM in TEP for older patients in the acute medical sett...

Background The National Health Service (NHS) has pledged to reach carbon net-zero by 2040. In alignment with this goal, a London hospital’s anaesthesia department is actively reducing desflurane use and transitioning towards total intravenous anaesthesia (TIVA) as a sustainable alternative, contributing to environmentally responsible practices with...

Introduction Long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes and other assisted living facilities, have been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19. The overall pandemic created an enormous pressure on long-term care workers (LTCWs), making them particularly vulnerable to mental disorders. However, most of the existing evidence regarding the well-b...

Introduction The adoption of remote healthcare methods has been accelerated by the COVID‐19 pandemic, but evidence suggests that some patients need additional support to engage remotely, potentially increasing health disparities if needs are not met. This study of COVID‐19 remote home monitoring services across England explores experiences of and e...

This review aimed to identify and critically assess tools and recommendations (collectively referred to as resources) advising on the use of qualitative data to inform epidemic response in low and middle income countries (LMICs). In doing so, we seek to improve the quality of these resources and ultimately support better integration of qualitative...

Background Analysing large qualitative datasets can present significant challenges, including the time and resources required for manual analysis and the potential for missing nuanced insights. This paper aims to address these challenges by exploring the application of Big Qualitative (Big Qual) and artificial intelligence (AI) methods to efficient...

Background The overall pandemic created enormous pressure on long-term care workers (LTCWs), making them particularly vulnerable to mental disorders. Despite this, most of the available evidence on professional well-being during COVID-19 has exclusively focused on frontline health care workers. Objective This study aimed to identify the long-term...

The role of genomics in healthcare is expanding rapidly and many countries are set to explore the possibility of using genomic sequencing to expand current newborn screening programmes. Offering routine genomic newborn screening (gNBS) would allow newborn screening to include a much broader range of rare conditions, but there are many technical, pr...

Patient safety has been a growing area of concern, especially within perioperative care where risks of major complications during surgery exist. Anaphylaxis in the operating theatre is a life-threatening drug reaction that happens suddenly, without warning and can affect anyone. The 6th National Audit Project (NAP6) of the Royal College of Anaesthe...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant global impact, with millions of cases and deaths. Research highlights the persistence of symptoms over time (post–COVID-19 condition), a situation of particular concern in children and young people with symptoms. Social media such as Twitter (subsequently rebranded as X) could provide valuable...

There is still much unknown about the long-term consequences of COVID-19, otherwise known as post-acute sequelae of COVID (PASC). The challenge of defining the manifestation of Long COVID in children and young people (CYP) was specifically identified as a research subject by the National Institute for Health and care Research (NIHR). The lack of da...

Background Rapid ethnographies (including focused, quick, rapid, and short-term, etc. ethnography) explore shared practices and meanings using a cultural lens and generate actionable findings using mostly qualitative methods in short timeframes. Despite being widely used in health and care research, rapid ethnographies are viewed by some as quick a...

Background Big qualitative data analysis is an emerging discipline in qualitative health research and has been used with online posts, open-ended survey responses, and patient health records. Traditional methods of qualitative data analysis can be time-consuming and biased by small sample sizes. The combined strengths of collaborative and participa...

Background Evidence networks facilitate the exchange of information and foster international relationships among researchers and stakeholders. These networks are instrumental in enabling the integration of scientific evidence into decision-making processes. While there is a global emphasis on evidence-based decision-making at policy and organisatio...

Background: The Genomic Medicine Service (GMS) was launched in 2018 in England to create a step-change in the use of genomics in the NHS, including offering whole genome sequencing (WGS) as part of routine care. In this qualitative study on pediatric rare disease diagnosis, we used an implementation science framework to identify enablers and barrie...

Rapid approaches are essential when resources are limited in research settings and in the real-time evaluation of changing services. Limitations exist in their design and implementation which can lead to a reduced level of trust in findings. This study identified the methods used across rapid evaluations, appraisals and assessments to improve rigou...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic caused various disruptions to NHS maternity services in England. Changes were made to antenatal and postnatal care and the way that information was shared with maternity service users during these times. Fewer face-to-face appointments, increased virtual appointments and changes in guidance about the suitability of...

Timeliness is key to influencing the utility of evaluation and research findings and has given rise to a range of rapid evaluation and appraisal approaches. However, issues in the design, implementation and transparency in their reporting has led to concerns around their rigour and validity. To address this, we have developed the Standards for Rapi...

Background Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is often described as the most distressing consequence of cancer and has a negative impact on quality of life. There have been few investigations into the FCR in patients with sarcomas. We sought to explore the patient's FCR after a sarcoma diagnosis to determine when these fears were presented and the str...

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for improved air flow in hospitals, to reduce the transmission of airborne infections such as COVID-19. The aim of this review was to map the existing literature on intervention used to improve air flow in hospitals, understanding challenges in implementation and the findings of any evaluations. We rev...

Background Health-care organisations in England that are rated as inadequate for leadership and one other domain enter the Special Measures for Quality regime to receive support and oversight. A ‘watch list’ of challenged providers that are at risk of entering Special Measures for Quality also receive support. Knowledge is limited about whether or...

Objective To evaluate patient and staff experiences of using technology-enabled (‘tech-enabled’) and analogue remote home monitoring models for COVID-19, implemented in England during the pandemic. Methods Twenty-eight sites were selected for diversity in a range of criteria (e.g. pre-hospital or early discharge service, mode of patient data submi...

Introduction Flexor tendons are traditionally repaired under either general anaesthesia (GA) or regional anaesthesia (RA), allowing for the use of an arm tourniquet to minimise blood loss and establish a bloodless surgical field. However, the use of tourniquets exposes the patient to certain risks, including skin, muscle and nerve injuries. A recen...

Unlabelled: Patients with sarcoma often report prolonged time to diagnosis, which is attributed to the rarity of sarcoma and the low awareness of pre-diagnostic signs and symptoms. Aims: To describe patients' experiences of pre-diagnostic signs/symptoms and pathways to diagnosis, including where help was sought, and the processes involved. Meth...

Background: Shared Decision-Making (SDM) between patients and clinicians is increasingly considered important. Treament Escalation Plans (TEP) are individualised documents outlining life-saving interventions to be considered in the event of clinical deterioration. SDM can inform subjective goals of care in TEP but it remains unclear how much it is...

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the fractures of healthcare systems around the world and continues to have a significant impact, particularly in relation to the healthcare workforce. Frontline staff have been exposed to unprecedented strain and delivering care during the pandemic has impacted their safety, mental health and wel...

This essay explores the emerging field of rapid evaluation in health and social care, drawing out the ways in which it is distinctive from or similar to other forms of applied research. It draws closely on the experience of two National Institute for Health and Care Research rapid service evaluation teams established in 2018, of which all authors o...

Background Remote home monitoring services were developed and implemented for patients with COVID-19 during the pandemic. Patients monitored blood oxygen saturation and other readings (e.g. temperature) at home and were escalated as necessary. Objective To evaluate effectiveness, costs, implementation, and staff and patient experiences (including...

Objectives Remote home monitoring services for patients at risk of rapid deterioration introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic had important implications for the health workforce. This study explored the nature of ‘work’ that health care staff in England undertook to manage patients with COVID-19 remotely, how they were supported to deliver these...

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant global impact, with millions of cases and deaths. Research highlights the persistence of symptoms over time (post–COVID-19 condition), a situation of particular concern in children and young people with symptoms. Social media such as Twitter (subsequently rebranded as X) could provide valuable...

There is still much unknown about the long-term consequences of COVID-19, otherwise known as post-acute sequelae of COVID (PASC). The challenge of defining the manifestation of Long COVID in children and young people (CYP) was specifically identified as a research subject by the National Institute for Health and care Research (NIHR). The lack of da...

Objectives Despite lower rates of illness, morbidity and mortality associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in children during the COVID-19 pandemic, their health and well-being has been significantly impacted. Emerging evidence indicates that this includes experiences of hospital-based care for them and their families. As part of a series of multisite...

Overcrowding affects hospital emergency departments (ED) worldwide. Most OR studies addressing overcrowding develop bespoke models to explore potential improvements but ignore the organisational context in which they would be implemented, and few influence practice. There is interest in whether reusable models, for ED crowding and in healthcare gen...

Background There has been an increase in the integration of qualitative studies in randomised controlled trials. The purpose of this article is to reflect on our experience of carrying out a rapid qualitative study during a feasibility trial of goal-directed fluid therapy (GDFT) in patients with acute pancreatitis, including our sharing of emerging...

BACKGROUND The overall pandemic created enormous pressure on long-term care workers (LTCWs), making them particularly vulnerable to mental disorders. Despite this, most of the available evidence on professional well-being during COVID-19 has exclusively focused on frontline health care workers. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to identify the long-term...

Background Despite lower rates of illness, morbidity and mortality associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in children during the pandemic, their health and wellbeing has been significantly impacted. Emerging evidence indicates that this includes experiences of hospital-based care for them and their families. As part of a series of multi-site research...

Background In March 2020 and January 2021 Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) staff were redeployed to hospitals in North Central London, to support the care of adult Covid positive in-patients and paediatric services. In addition to providing care for children usually referred to GOSH, the hospital prepared for children who required hospital care...

Introduction Regulation through statutory reporting is used in healthcare internationally to improve accountability, quality of care and patient safety. Since 2017, within the National Health Service (NHS) in England, NHS Secondary Care Trusts (NSCTs) are legally required to report annually both quantitative and qualitative information related to p...

Introduction The imperative to learn when a patient dies due to problems in care is absolute. In 2017, the Learning from Deaths (LfDs) framework, a countrywide patient safety programme, was launched in the National Health Service (NHS) in England. NHS Secondary Care Trusts (NSCTs) are legally required to publish quantitative and qualitative informa...

Background Centralising specialist cancer surgical services is an example of major system change. High-volume centres are recommended to improve specialist cancer surgery care and outcomes. Objective Our aim was to use a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the centralisation of specialist surgery for prostate, bladder, renal and oesophago-gastric c...

Introduction Complementary therapies, such as massage and reflexology, are widely used in palliative care settings. People with advanced disease report a range of physical and psychological benefits, however clinical trials evidence for effectiveness of complementary therapy is inconclusive. Developing a core outcome set (a list of outcomes deemed...

Introduction Involving service users in health service design and delivery is considered important to improve the quality of healthcare because it ensures that the delivery of healthcare is adapted to the needs of the users. Co‐production is a process used to involve service users, but multiple papers have highlighted the need for the mechanisms an...

Introduction The incidence of renal tumours is increasing and anatomic imaging cannot reliably distinguish benign tumours from renal cell carcinoma. Up to 30% of renal tumours are benign, with oncocytomas the most common type. Biopsy has not been routinely adopted in many centres due to concerns surrounding non-diagnostic rate, bleeding and tumour...

Researchers often develop and decide upon the measurement tools for assessing outcomes related to domestic abuse interventions. However, it is known that clients, service providers and researchers have different ideas about the outcomes that should be measured as markers of success. Evidence from non-domestic abuse sectors indicates that engagement...

Genomic healthcare programmes, both in a research and clinical context, have demonstrated a pivotal opportunity to prevent, diagnose, and treat rare diseases. However, implementation factors could increase overall costs and affect uptake. As well, uncertainties remain regarding effective training, guidelines and legislation. The purpose of this rap...

Introduction Rapid qualitative studies conducted with patient and public involvement can help promote policy-relevant and efficient research. There is a need to understand the experiences of researchers, patients, and members of the public to guide the development of good practice and to determine the extent to which rapid qualitative research can...

This cross-sectional study addresses the evidence gap in uptake of interpretation services and patient experiences among a South Asian population in the UK without English language proficiency.

Rapid qualitative research is becoming more widely used in contexts such as healthcare and education. Rapid data collection and analysis approaches are used to capture complexities surrounding service provision, the social and cultural factors shaping service use and delivery, and the nuanced practices of service provision in short time frames, whi...

Background There are over 15,000 care homes in England, with a total of approximately 450,000 beds. Most residents are older adults, some with dementia, and other residents are people of any age with physical or learning disabilities. Using pulse oximetry in care homes can help the monitoring and care of residents with COVID-19 and other conditions...

Developing collaborative relationships between researchers, stakeholders, and healthcare teams in complex healthcare settings is a recognised challenge. Healthcare leaders and organisations struggle with how to make research informed decisions, because of the need for immediate and timely research data. Scoping studies, or the integration of a rapi...

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on fractures in health care systems worldwide and continues to have a significant impact, particularly in relation to the health care workforce. Frontline staff have been exposed to unprecedented strain, and delivering care during the pandemic has affected their safety, mental health, and well-being....

Over 1.5 million major surgical procedures take place in the UK NHS each year and approximately 25% of patients develop at least one complication. The most widely used risk-adjustment model for postoperative morbidity in the UK is the physiological and operative severity score for the enumeration of mortality and morbidity. However, this model was...

Background Complementary therapies are widely used in palliative care settings. Qualitative research found that people with advanced disease report a range of physical and psychological benefits from complementary therapies, however evidence of their effectiveness from clinical trials is inconclusive. This may be because trials are limited by use o...

Cardiac arrest in the peri‐operative period is rare but associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Current reporting systems do not capture many such events, so there is an incomplete understanding of incidence and outcomes. As peri‐operative cardiac arrest is rare, many hospitals may only see a small number of cases over long periods, an...

Over 1.5 million major surgical procedures take place in the UK NHS each year and approximately 25% of patients develop at least one complication. The most widely used risk‐adjustment model for postoperative morbidity in the UK is the physiological and operative severity score for the enumeration of mortality and morbidity. However, this model was...

Background Significant resources are invested in the UK to collect data for National Clinical Audits (NCAs), but it is unclear whether and how they facilitate local quality improvement (QI). The perioperative setting is a unique context for QI due to its multidisciplinary nature and history of measurement. It is unclear which NCAs evaluate perioper...

Background: Provision of timely, safe, and affordable surgical care is an essential component of any high-quality health system. Increasingly, it is recognized that poor quality of care in the perioperative period (before, during, and after surgery) may contribute to significant excess mortality and morbidity. Therefore, improving access to surgic...

Abstract Background: The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way in which people were diagnosed and treated for cancer. We explored healthcare professional and patient perceptions of the main changes to colorectal cancer delivery during the COVID�19 pandemic and how they impacted on socioeconomic inequalities in care. Methods: In 2020, using a qualitativ...

Introduction Major surgery accounts for a substantial proportion of health service activity, due not only to the primary procedure, but the longer-term health implications of poor short-term outcome. Data from small studies or from outside the UK indicate that rates of complications and failure to rescue vary between hospitals, as does compliance w...

Aims: With a social media analysis of the discourse surrounding the prevalence of Long COVID in children and young people (CYP), this study aims to explore healthcare workers' perceptions concerning Long COVID in CYP in the UK between January 2021 and January 2022. This will allow to contribute to the emerging knowledge on Long COVID and identify c...

Background: Studies have shown that centralising surgical treatment for some cancers can improve patient outcomes, but there is limited evidence of the impact on costs or health-related quality of life. Objectives: We report the results of a cost-utility analysis of the RESPECT-21 study using difference-in-differences, which investigated the rec...

IntroductionRapid qualitative studies conducted with patient and public involvement can help promote policy-relevant and efficient research. There is a need to understand the experiences of researchers, patients, and members of the public to guide the development of good practice and to determine the extent to which rapid qualitative research can b...

Introduction Regulation through statutory reporting is used in healthcare internationally to improve accountability, quality of care and patient safety. Since 2017 within the National Health Service (NHS) in England NHS Secondary Care Trusts (NSCTs) are legally required to report annually both quantitative and qualitative information related to pat...