Health Services and Social Care Research
HSR addresses important problems for health and social care services. It focuses on funders’ national priorities to generate internationally transferable knowledge and impact. HSR values the importance of public involvement, so research leads to services that are effective, efficient and equitable.
What is HSR?
Health Services and Social Care Research (HSR) aims to understand how health and social care services can best deliver care to improve patients’ health. It uses multiple methods, including qualitative research, “big data”, intervention development, and evaluation to examine the structures, processes and outcomes of care. It works at multiple scales, from the individual person’s experience to the delivery of care to populations.
HSR at the TV
TV has been a leader in health services research since the 1990s. Today, HSR occurs across all areas of the Faculty of Health. However expertise is concentrated within the Health Services Research section of the Division of Population Health. This currently comprises 5 groups sharing methodological approaches and expertise. Together, our researchers currently lead or collaborate in research representing over £70M of research funding.
Research groups
The five groups within the HSR section are:
Urgent and Emergency Care
The Centre for Urgent and Emergency Care Research (CURE) aims to improve the quality of urgent and emergency care through rigorous objective independent research. Researchers undertake health service research into the organisation and delivery of urgent and emergency care, as well as health technology assessments.
Health and Care Research
The Health and Care Research Unit (HCRU) aims to carry out research that influences health care, social care and voluntary/charitable services practice and policy for the benefit of service users and the public. Researchers develop and evaluate complex interventions, services and technologies to measure the impact on user outcomes, service effectiveness and the wider social and economic effects. Themes include learning disability, palliative care, voluntary services, workforce, developing complex interventions, and using qualitative research with RCTs.
Mental Health
The Mental Health Research Unit (MHRU) conducts high quality research to improve outcomes and experiences of mental health care for those with serious mental illness, their families and carers, and to generate evidence to inform providers of mental health care. Our research includes identifying ways to reduce the burden of mental health problems in the wider population, to reduce mental health inequalities, and support the mental health workforce.
Primary care
The primary care research group leads and supports research into the delivery of primary health care focusing on general practice. Our team includes clinical academics, and health and social scientists, and has a strong culture of developing early career clinical academics in general practice.
Visit the primary care research website
Rehabilitation and Aging
The rehabilitation and aging research group carries out research aimed at helping people live well and independently at home. We develop, evaluate and implement new rehabilitation interventions, with a focus on people living with disability, frailty and long-term conditions.