How NIHR ARCs rose to the challenge of COVID-19

A national publication highlighting how National Institute for Health and Care Research Applied Research Collaborations (NIHR ARCs) rose to the challenge of COVID-19 launches today, the third anniversary of the first UK lockdown. 

Vital work from across the ARCs in response to the pandemic is showcased in NIHR ARCs: Supporting the fight against COVID-19 (PDF), including three case studies from ARC Northwest London projects. 

The publication brings together case studies demonstrating how ARCs pivoted their research programmes in response to the pandemic. It showcases work across a range of themes including children and young people, care homes, equality and diversity, end of life care and workforce planning.

NIHR ARC NWL projects featured in the publication contributed to the receipt of the Queens Anniversary Prize for research by Imperial College London.  The prize celebrates the rapid and collaborative early response from staff across different disciplines, including crucial modelling, developing treatments, vaccines and tests, and their efforts supporting the international response to COVID-19. 

Predicting COVID-19 bed occupancy to support hospital bed management

Working with NWL Integrated Care System, the Information and Intelligence Theme at ARC NWL developed a real-time, weekly predictive multivariable model of hospital bed usage for patients with COVID-19. This was used alongside other national and local models to support the weekly decision making of the NWL Gold Command throughout the pandemic. This collaborative approach connected an agile informatics solution to regional healthcare decision-makers and leaders. The use of real-time accessible data enabled the predictive model to support service evaluation of bed occupancy and patient flow. It demonstrated the application of a whole system de-identified patient dataset in supporting improvements in care delivery. The collaboration continues, helping the system meet healthcare needs.

A collaboration of the three London ARCs and AHSNs

The second case study highlights the London ARC's involvement in a London-wide network of applied health research centres and NHS clinical and transformation leads. The London Evaluation Cell, later the London Strategic Research Health and Care Learning System, was established in June 2020, to understand the London-wide service response to Covid-19 and to rapidly translate knowledge into service provision across the regional care sector. The cell led to a collaboration and knowledge sharing network that didn’t previously exist. It enabled clinical and academic health leaders to collectively identify and set evaluation priorities, rapidly translating knowledge into  service provision across the regional care sector.

Exploring vaccination rates amongst pregnant women and children in deprived ethnic minority communities

Pregnant women and children are more likely to miss out on getting their routine vaccines if they are from an ethnic minority or live in a poorer area, which also means they are less likely to get their COVID vaccination.

In 2018 Dr Helen Skirrow of our Child Population Health theme began a collaboration with the Mosaic Community Trust, funded by the NIHR Imperial BRC and the IMPRINT network. The Westminster based project looked at pregnancy vaccine rates and the reasons for low uptake. The researchers quickly discovered that the local population felt that their views had not been listened to.  On the ground, Mosaic’s community health advocates through their collaboration with Dr Skirrow have increased their vaccine knowledge, become vaccine advocates and by being part of the research team, have learnt skills that are transferable to other professional and personal areas.  We are now collaborating with the Northwest London Integrated Care System which will lead to the development of a Maternity Equity and Equality Strategy to better support local under-served communities.

I would like to thank everyone in the NIHR ARC NW London Team for their contribution to the local and national response to Covid-19 during the pandemic. The national ARC report features some of this work but there were also many other examples that we could not include. The contribution we made was recognised in Imperial College receiving the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Research. We continue with this work and are also supporting global as well as national efforts to manage Covid-19.

The publication was led by NIHR ARC East Midlands, with communications support from NIHR ARC West. In the foreword, the ARC Directors write:

“In 2020, we made rapid changes to our research programmes across the ARCs, to inform policy and practice, improve health and care, and deliver national-level impact in this rapidly changing landscape. “Our expertise in data modelling, multiple long-term conditions, mental health and social care alongside our ability to build and sustain collaborations across the NHS, social care, the voluntary sector and industry, has placed us in a unique position. We have been able to contribute to the efforts to understand the virus and its impact on communities, locally, nationally and globally. “This publication outlines our response as ARCs, both collectively and individually, to this challenge. It showcases the part we have played in supporting the health and care sector and patients, public and communities. We are proud of our part in lending our expertise to understanding the disease and assisting the global effort to contain it, improving outcomes and saving lives.”

Professor Lucy Chappell, Chief Executive of the NIHR and the Department of Health and Social Care’s Chief Scientific Advisor, said:

“The COVID-19 pandemic was unlike any health crisis we had experienced for a century. In order for us to tackle the pandemic swiftly and strongly, we needed a collaborative and sustained approach across health and care research that harnessed the power of our collective effort like never before. “This impressive report sets out how that effort was provided, extending across many different themes, specialisms, and areas of the country. It illustrates how researchers, working together to tackle a common cause, can have such an important impact for patients and the public.”

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