Staff news

Local health project wins grant

A University project seeking to improve the lives of locally based people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) has won a five-figure grant from local charity Edinburgh & Lothian Health Foundation.

In 2011, the NHS-linked charity launched a £1.9 million grants programme designed to help improve the health of people from the Edinburgh & Lothian region.

Dr Hilary Pinnock, a Reader with the University’s Centre for Population Health Sciences, was granted a share of this funding for her pilot study using light-touch telemonitoring for people with COPD in Lothian.

Telemonitoring

In traditional telemonitoring of COPD, the patients’ daily readings (including symptoms questionnaires and pulse oximetry) are monitored daily by a clinical team who will phone or arrange to see the patient if their condition deteriorates.

However many patients can learn to monitor their own condition with a ‘light-touch approach’.

The patient is given an oximeter to measure their oxygen levels and self-management information so they can identify when their condition worsens and contact their healthcare provider promptly via a dedicated telephone line.

This award will allow Dr Pinnock’s team to evaluate this new approach.

The project, a collaboration with NHS Lothian and Edinburgh Napier University, is part of the University’s wider Telescot Research Programme.

Award increases

This grant was one of 50 awarded to the College of Medicine & Veterinary Medicine in May.

This was a 32 per cent increase on the number awarded to the College in May 2011.

For details of research awards granted to the other Colleges in May, download ERI’s KPI reports.