Nick Sevdalis

National University of Singapore | NUS · Centre for Behavioural & Implementation Science Interventions (BISI)

The World Health Organization and global partners sought to identify existing measures of confidence in childhood vaccines, as part of a broader effort to measure the range of behavioural and social drivers of vaccination. We identified 14 confidence measures applicable to childhood vaccination in general, all published between 2010 and 2019. The m...

Aims and method A collaborative evaluation of remote consultations in mental health services was undertaken by mental health service providers, experts by experience, academic institutions and a Health Innovation Network in south London, UK. ‘Learning healthcare systems’ thinking was applied. Workstream 1 reviewed international published evidence;...

The recent resurgence of mpox highlights the urgent need for rethinking vaccination strategies globally, underscored by the painful memories of past public health crises where delayed responses and inequitable vaccine distribution exacerbated the spread of infectious diseases. The inaugural APIC-ADVA Asia Pacific Summit on Infectious Diseases and I...

Objectives To assess the feasibility and acceptability of delivering Healthy Eating and Active Lifestyles for Diabetes (HEAL-D) Online. Intervention HEAL-D Online—a 7-week culturally tailored type 2 diabetes educational programme delivered using online platform. Setting Programme delivered by a London NHS trust, with patients referred from primar...

Background People with severe mental illness (SMI) have worse physical health than the general population. There is evidence that support from volunteers can help the mental health of people with SMI, but little evidence regarding the support they can give for physical health. Aims To evaluate the feasibility of an intervention where volunteer ‘He...

Aim When developing public health measures in a pandemic, it is important to examine attitudes and beliefs relating to vaccination uptake. We report the discrimination of a single-item vaccination intention scale and derive cutpoints in terms of sensitivity (true positives) and specificity (true negatives) in relation to subsequent vaccination stat...

Background Having traditionally received limited attention in empirical research and safety improvement agendas, issues of patient safety in mental healthcare increasingly feature in healthcare quality improvement discourses. Dominant approaches to safety stem from narrow clinical risk management perspectives, yet existing evidence points to the li...

Introduction CARISEL is an implementation–effectiveness “hybrid” study examining the perspectives of people living with HIV-1 (patient study participants [PSPs]) on cabotegravir (CAB) plus rilpivirine (RPV) long-acting (LA) dosed every 2 months (Q2M) across 5 European countries. Methods PSPs completed questionnaires on acceptability (Acceptability...

Purpose This systematic review focuses on the effectiveness, safety, and implementation outcomes of light therapy as an intervention to prevent or control myopia in children. Methods A systematic literature search was performed in PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, SCOPUS, and Web of Science up to January 27, 2024. Effectiveness outcomes included myopia inci...

Background The Ethiopian Primary Healthcare Clinical Guidelines (EPHCG) seek to improve quality of primary health care, while also expanding access to care for people with Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health Conditions (NCDs/MHCs). The aim of this study was to identify barriers and enablers to implementation of the EPHCG with a particular f...

Introduction Many patient safety practices are only partly established in routine clinical care, despite extensive quality improvement efforts. Implementation science can offer insights into how patient safety practices can be successfully adopted. Objective The objective was to examine the literature on implementation of three internationally use...

Background Pragmatism is important in implementation science to ensure that implementation methods reflect the practical concerns of the stakeholders and services involved in change. To evaluate the usability of these methods, pragmatic measures have been developed using psychometrics. However, existing approaches have predominantly inherited a def...

Introduction Being on a waiting list for elective (planned) cardiac surgery can be physically and psychologically challenging for patients. Research suggests that stress associated with waiting for surgery is dependent on different individual and contextual factors. However, most data on patients’ experiences of waiting for surgery and preferences...

Aims To assess the cost‐effectiveness of HARPdoc (Hypoglycaemia Awareness Restoration Programme for adults with type 1 diabetes and problematic hypoglycaemia despite optimised care), focussed upon cognitions and motivation, versus BGAT (Blood Glucose Awareness Training), focussed on behaviours and education, as adjunctive treatments for treatment‐r...

Objectives This study evaluated the scale-up of a remote monitoring (RM) service, capturing monthly Rheumatoid Arthritis Impact of Disease scores and patient-generated text messages, for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA; in remission or with low disease activity) attending routine outpatient clinics across six hospitals. We explored patients...

Background To date, beneficial effects of multimodal exercise programmes on Parkinson’s disease (PD) have focused on motor symptoms and little attention has been paid to the potential effects of such programmes on the non-motor symptoms of PD, which are now universally known as one of the key drivers of quality of life and a key unmet need. We aim...

Background Multi-disciplinary behavioral research on acute care teams has focused on understanding how teams work and on identifying behaviors characteristic of efficient and effective team performance. We aimed to define important knowledge gaps and establish a research agenda for the years ahead of prioritized research questions in this field of...

People with severe mental illness (SMI) are more likely to experience physical health conditions than the general population. Little is known about the experience of people with SMI using digital health interventions (DHIs) to support their physical health. We explored how people with SMI use DHIs to support their physical health, the acceptability...

Background Informal caregivers of people with dementia (PwD) living at home are often the primary source of care, and, in their role, they often experience loss of quality of life. Implementation science knowledge is needed to optimize the real‐world outcomes of evidence‐based interventions (EBIs) for informal caregivers. This scoping review aims t...

Background: The Ethiopian Primary Healthcare Clinical Guidelines (EPHCG) seek to improve quality for people with Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health Conditions (NCDs-MHCs) and provide an integrated approach to multi-morbidity. The aim of this study was to identify barriers and enablers to implementation of the EPHCG with a particular focus...

Background Informal caregivers of people with dementia (PwD) living at home are often the primary source of care, and, in their role, they often experience loss of quality of life. Implementation science knowledge is needed to optimize the real-world outcomes of evidence-based interventions (EBIs) for informal caregivers. This scoping review aims t...

Background In England, a range of mental health crisis care models and approaches to organising crisis care systems have been implemented, but characteristics associated with their effectiveness are poorly understood. Aims To (a) develop a typology of catchment area mental health crisis care systems and (b) investigate how crisis care service mode...

Background Mental health acute and crisis care consumes a large share of mental health budgets internationally but is often experienced as unsatisfactory and difficult to access. As a result, there is an increasing move towards developing innovative community crisis services, to improve patient experience and relieve pressure on inpatient and emerg...

Fifteen to 20 years is how long it takes for the billions of dollars of health-related research to translate into evidence-based policies and programs suitable for public use. Over the past two decades, an exciting science has emerged that seeks to narrow the gap between the discovery of new knowledge and its application in public health, mental he...

Introduction Setting mental health priorities helps researchers, policy makers, and service funders improve mental health services. In the context of a national mental health implementation programme in England, this study aims to identify implementable evidence-based interventions in key priority areas to improve mental health service delivery. M...

Background Postnatal depression (PND) affects over 12% of mothers, with numbers rising during COVID-19. Singing groups can support mothers with PND; however, online delivery has never been evaluated. SHAPER-PNDO, a single-arm clinical trial, evaluated the feasibility, clinical efficacy, and well-being outcomes of a 6-week online version of Breathe...

Background Adults with a serious mental illness (SMI) are at greater risk of physical health morbidity and premature death than the general population, largely as a result of preventable physical health issues. Staff working in mental health services have a role to play in addressing these inequalities, but little is known about how they perceive t...

Background Healthcare-based Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (hIDVA) are evidence-based programmes that provide emotional and practical support to service users experiencing domestic abuse. hIDVA programmes are found to improve health outcomes for service users and are increasingly delivered across a range of healthcare settings. However, it...

Background: Ageing populations globally have contributed to increasing numbers of people living with frailty, which has significant implications for use of health and care services and costs. The British Geriatrics Society defines frailty as "a distinctive health state related to the ageing process in which multiple body systems gradually lose the...

Introduction In cancer care, multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings are the gold standard. While they are trying to maximize productivity on the back of the steadily increasing workload, growing cancer incidence, financial constraints, and staff shortages, concerns have been raised with regards to the quality of team output, as reported by Cancer Re...

Improved uptake of adult vaccinations could substantially reduce the burden of infectious disease worldwide, however very few countries achieve high coverage of recommended adult vaccinations. Vaccine hesitancy is an important driver of low vaccine uptake among adults but no measure currently exists to capture general vaccination attitudes in this...

Background The World Health Organization’s Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021–2030 call for attention to patient and family involvement to reduce preventable patient harm. Existing evidence indicates that patients’ involvement in their own safety has positive effects on reducing hospitalisation time and readmissions. One intervention reported i...

Background In England, a range of mental health crisis care models and approaches to organising crisis care systems have been implemented, but characteristics associated with their effectiveness are poorly understood. Aims To i) develop a typology of catchment area mental health crisis care systems and ii) investigate how crisis care service model...

Hybrid effectiveness-implementation studies allow researchers to combine study of a clinical intervention's effectiveness with study of its implementation with the aim of accelerating the translation of evidence into practice. However, there currently exists limited guidance on how to design and manage such hybrid studies. This is particularly true...

The concept of quality has moved to the top of the international healthcare agenda in the past 30 years. This has been driven by a growing awareness of the scale of variation in patient outcomes, influenced by both the paucity of and consistency in implementation of evidence-based actions or interventions performed during the delivery of patient ca...

Background Individuals living with long COVID experience multiple, interacting and fluctuating symptoms which can have a dramatic impact on daily living. The aim of the Long Covid Personalised Self-managemenT support EvaluatioN (LISTEN) trial is to evaluate effects of the LISTEN co-designed self-management support intervention for non-hospitalised...

Background: We investigated factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine uptake, future vaccination intentions, and changes in beliefs and attitudes over time. Methods: Prospective cohort study. 1500 participants completed an online survey in January 2021 (T1, start of vaccine rollout in the UK), of whom 1148 (response rate 76.5 %) completed another...

Background The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a rapid shift from traditional face-to-face care provision towards delivering mental health care remotely through telecommunications, often referred to as telemental health care. However, the manner and extent of telemental health implementation have varied considerably across settings and areas, and sub...

Background: It is not well understood the overall changes that multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) have had to make in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, nor the impact that such changes, in addition to the other challenges faced by MDTs, have had on decision-making, communication, or participation in the context of MDT meetings specifically. Methods:...

BACKGROUND People with severe mental illness (SMI) are more likely to suffer from physical health conditions than the general population, with a lower life expectancy of up to 18 years. Little is known about the experience of people with SMI using digital health interventions (DHIs) to support their physical health, and whether they perceive such i...

Human factors is an evidence‐based scientific discipline used in safety critical industries to improve safety and worker well‐being. The implementation of human factors strategies in anaesthesia has the potential to reduce the reliance on exceptional personal and team performance to provide safe and high‐quality patient care. To encourage the adopt...

Healthcare relies on high levels of human performance, as described by the ‘human as the hero’ concept. However, human performance varies and is recognised to fall in high‐pressure situations, meaning that it is not a reliable method of ensuring safety. Other safety‐critical industries embed human factors principles into all aspects of their organi...

Background Mental health acute and crisis care consumes a large share of mental health budgets internationally but is often experienced as unsatisfactory and difficult to access. As a result, there is an increasing move towards developing innovative community crisis services, to improve patient experience and relieve pressure on inpatient and emerg...

Background: Adults with a serious mental illness (SMI) are at greater risk of physical health morbidity and premature death than the general population, largely as a result of preventable physical health issues. Staff working in mental health services have a role to play in addressing these inequalities, but little is known about how they perceive...

Leadership by health professionals is key in any health system, but health leadership training programmes are varied in their conceptualisation, learning objectives, and design. This paper describes an undergraduate leadership and management module for health students at the University of Sierra Leone and provides lessons from the design process. O...

Aim To investigate UK parents’ vaccination intention at a time when COVID-19 vaccination was available to some children. Methods Data reported are from the second wave of a prospective cohort study. We conducted a mixed-methods study using an online survey of 270 UK parents (conducted 4–15 October 2021). At this time, vaccination was available to...

Introduction The need for quantitative criteria to appraise the quality of implementation research has recently been highlighted to improve methodological rigour. The Implementation Science Research development (ImpRes) tool and supplementary guide provide methodological guidance and recommendations on how to design high-quality implementation rese...

This paper presents a study from Sierra Leone that explored the experiences of doctors as they endeavored to improve the health care systems in which they worked. Twenty-eight interviews were conducted with doctors in Sierra Leone, complemented by long-standing experience of national health provision and research by the authors. Drawing on Hirschma...

Background Quality improvement (QI) in healthcare is a cultural transformation process. We explored how routine reporting could be developed to aid visibility of the process for QI governance. Method A retrospective evaluation of QI projects in a large healthcare organisation was conducted. We used an online survey so that the data accrual process...

Background. Individuals living with long COVID experience multiple, interacting and fluctuating symptoms which can have a dramatic impact on daily living. The aim of the Long Covid Personalised Self-managemenT support EvaluatioN (LISTEN) trial is to evaluate effects of the LISTEN co-designed self-management support intervention for non-hospitalised...

Introduction Patient safety problems stemming from healthcare delivery constitute a global public health concern and represent a pervasive barrier to improving care quality and clinical outcomes. However, evidence generation into safety in mental health care, particularly regarding community‐based mental health services, has long fallen behind that...

Introduction The National Health Service Insight Prioritisation Programme was established to accelerate the implementation and evaluation of innovation that supports post-pandemic working. Supporting this, the Academic Health Science Network and National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaboration in South London are testi...

Introduction Postoperative infections represent a significant burden of disease, demanding antibiotic prescriptions, and are contributing to antimicrobial resistance. The burden of infection as a surgical complication is greater in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We report the protocol of a pilot study for the co-design, implementation an...

The pragmatic (i.e., practical) quality of quantitative implementation measures has received increased attention in the implementation science literature in recent years. Implementation measures that are judged to be pragmatic by implementation stakeholders are thought to be more likely to be applied in research and practice. Despite the need for p...

Objective To investigate symptom reporting following the first and second COVID-19 vaccine doses, attribution of symptoms to the vaccine, and factors associated with symptom reporting. Methods Prospective cohort study (T1: 13–15 January 2021, T2: 4–15 October 2021). Participants were aged 18 years or older, living in the UK. Personal, clinical, an...

Background Globally, 5 billion people lack access to safe surgical care with more deaths due to lack of quality care rather than lack of access. While many proven quality improvement (QI) interventions exist in high-income countries, implementing them in low/middle-income countries (LMICs) faces further challenges. Currently, theory-driven, systema...

Objective: To investigate symptom reporting following the first and second COVID-19 vaccine doses, attribution of symptoms to the vaccine, and factors associated with symptom reporting. Methods: Prospective cohort study (T1: 13-15 January 2021, T2: 4-15 October 2021). Participants were aged 18 years or older, living in the UK. Personal, clinical, a...

Introduction Existing research has seldom examined patient safety problems experienced by service users accessing community mental healthcare, with the growing evidence base focusing largely on safety in psychiatric inpatient settings. Accordingly, there is poor understanding of safety issues in community-based mental health services as perceived b...

IntroductionThere is limited existing research about patient safety issues in mental healthcare. A lack of evidence is particularly pronounced in relation to safety in community-based mental health services, where the majority of care is provided. To date, reviews of mental health patient safety literature have focused primarily on inpatient care s...

Introduction Patient safety problems stemming from healthcare represent a significant cause of morbidity and mortality globally. The evidence base on safety in mental healthcare, particularly regarding community-based mental health services, has long fallen behind that of physical healthcare, with fewer research publications, developed primarily in...

Background Multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) are widely used in cancer care. Recent research points to logistical challenges impeding MDT decision-making and dissatisfaction among members. This study sought to identify different types of logistical issues and how they impacted team processes. Methods This was a secondary analysis of a cross-sectional...