Research ambitions will improve patient care

We’re excited to be collaborating with leading Lancashire academics and institutions as we move forward with our ambition to become a research-leading hospice – with improved care for patients and their loved ones as our driving force.

The work is being steered by our newly-formed Research Sub-committee, which we are honoured is chaired by Professor StJohn Crean, Pro Vice Chancellor (Clinical) at the University of Central Lancashire.

A successful funding bid will pay for a dedicated research nurse to work at St Catherine’s three days a week over the next eight months, and work is currently underway to identify our first projects.

Themes we are committed to exploring include innovation and connectivity to help with remote treatment and support, and the importance and impact of nature in the hospice environment – ‘biophilic design’ – and how that might improve patient experience.

Dr Andrew Fletcher, Medical Director at St Catherine’s (pictured), said: “We envisage a lot of our work being qualitative research, which suits the nature of palliative care, but we are also keen to embrace appropriate opportunities for clinical trials focused on new drugs, treatments or devices.

“At St Catherine’s we are committed to continuously improving experiences for the patients and families we care for. We do this through developing our services and through education and training – going forward our research programme will be another component in how we achieve this. We are very excited and extremely proud to be collaborating with such respected partners in this important new area of work.”

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