Understanding the value of a doctorate for allied health professionals in practice in the UK: a survey.

Background: The need to transform the United Kingdom's (UK) delivery of health and care services to better meet population needs and expectations is well-established, as is the critical importance of research and innovation to drive those transformations. Allied health professionals (AHPs) represent a significant proportion of the healthcare workforce. Developing and expanding their skills and capabilities is fundamental to delivering new ways of working.

Allied health professional research engagement and impact on healthcare performance: A systematic review protocol.

Background: Existing evidence suggests that clinician and organization engagement in research can improve healthcare processes of care and outcomes. However, current evidence has considered the relationship across all healthcare professions collectively. With the increase in allied health clinical academic and research activity, it is imperative for healthcare organizations, leaders and managers to understand engagement in research within these specific clinical fields.

"I'm walking into the unknown": Qualitative insights into how emotions and lived experience related to multiple sclerosis diagnosis impact on decisions to pursue disease modifying treatment.

Introduction: People with Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS) are increasingly included as active participants in shared decision making around their treatment options. Choosing a first disease modifying treatment (DMT) is a complex process that often takes place soon after a diagnosis has been given. Patients therefore are often required to make difficult decisions at a time when they are still coming to terms with their illness.

Screening for aspiration risk associated with dysphagia in acute stroke.

Background: Stroke can affect people's ability to swallow, resulting in passage of some food and drink into the airway. This can cause choking, chest infection, malnutrition and dehydration, reduced rehabilitation, increased risk of anxiety and depression, longer hospital stay, increased likelihood of discharge to a care home, and increased risk of death. Early identification and management of disordered swallowing reduces risk of these difficulties.

Collaborative healthcare education programmes for continuing professional education in low and middle-income countries: A Best Evidence Medical Education (BEME) systematic review. BEME Guide No. 65.

Background: Large discrepancies exist between standards of healthcare provision in high-income (HICs) and low and middle-income countries (LMICs). The root cause is often financial, resulting in poor infrastructure and under-resourced education and healthcare systems. Continuing professional education (CPE) programmes improve staff knowledge, skills, retention, and practice, but remain costly and rare in low-resource settings.

Evaluation of a manualised speech and language therapy programme for children with social communication disorder: the SCIP feasibility study.

Background: Children with Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder (SPCD) have long-term needs in using and processing social language and have a high risk of later mental health difficulties. A manualised speech and language therapy programme, the Social Communication Intervention Programme (SCIP) provides therapy content for SPCD. A feasibility study is required to derive more precise estimates of key parameters for a future trial of SCIP.

Moving Beyond Traditional Understandings of Evidence-Based Practice: A Total Evidence and Knowledge Approach (TEKA) to Treatment Evaluation and Clinical Decision Making in Speech-Language Pathology.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a well-established framework for supporting clinical decision making in the discipline of speech-language pathology. The benefits of using evidence to inform clinical practice are acknowledged by clinicians and researchers alike. Even so, after over two decades of EBP advocacy, much clinical uncertainty remains and models supporting the evaluation of interventions require review and reconsideration.

Inequalities in access to health and social care among adults with multiple sclerosis: A scoping review of the literature.

Variations in access to health care are known to contribute to differences in life expectancy, morbidity and health-related quality-of-life across population subgroups. We undertook a scoping review to identify what is known about in-country variations in access to services for adults with multiple sclerosis and to identify gaps in the literature to inform future research and national policies. We searched MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PSYCHINFO, SocINDEX and Social Science Abstracts from inception to end of December 2016 for quantitative studies which had investigated differences in access to prevention services, healthcare services, treatments and social care between inequality groups, defined using the PROGRESS-PLUS framework.

Is keep/refer decision making an integral part of national guidelines for the physiotherapy profession within Europe? A review.

Background: Keep/refer decision as the ability to independently determine whether a patient's condition is suitable for physiotherapy management (keep) or not (refer), is regarded as an core element in the World Confederation of Physical Therapists' (WCPT) Guideline for Standards of Physical Therapy Practice. However, it is currently unknown how individual European countries have implemented this in their national guidelines.

Objectives: To determine if keep/refer decision making abilities are an integral part of national guidelines for the physiotherapy profession of member countries of the European Network of Physiotherapy in Higher Education (ENPHE).

Care staff perceptions of choking incidents: what details are reported?

Background: Following a series of fatal choking incidents in one UK specialist service, this study evaluated the detail included in incident reporting. This study compared the enhanced reporting system in the specialist service with the national reporting and learning system.

Methods: Eligible reports were selected from a national organization and a specialist service using search terms relevant to adults with intellectual disability and/or mental ill health.

An exploration of the impact of anti-TNFα medication on exercise behaviour in patients with ankylosing spondylitis.

Background: Exercise has traditionally been an important part of the treatment of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) in order to maintain spinal mobility. Additionally, anti-tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) medication has been proven highly effective in treating the condition. Over recent years, a few papers have shown the synergistic effect of combining anti-TNFα medication with rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation or compensation: time for a fresh perspective on speech and language therapy for dysphagia and Parkinson's disease?

Background: Dysphagia is a common symptom of Parkinson's disease and can have negative consequences for physical health and quality of life. A variety of treatment options are available to clinicians working with people who have dysphagia and Parkinson's disease. These options can be broadly categorized as being compensatory or rehabilitative in nature.

Evidence-based practice: SLTs under siege or opportunity for growth? The use and nature of research evidence in the profession.

Background: Speech and language therapists are encouraged to be evidence-based practitioners in contemporary clinical practice. This apparently signifies their commitment to 'good' practice. An examination of evidence-based practice (EBP) and its adoption in clinical practice is therefore warranted.

What can management theories offer evidence-based practice? A comparative analysis of measurement tools for organisational context.

Background: Given the current emphasis on networks as vehicles for innovation and change in health service delivery, the ability to conceptualize and measure organisational enablers for the social construction of knowledge merits attention. This study aimed to develop a composite tool to measure the organisational context for evidence-based practice (EBP) in healthcare.

Methods: A structured search of the major healthcare and management databases for measurement tools from four domains: research utilisation (RU), research activity (RA), knowledge management (KM), and organisational learning (OL).

Assessing adherence to the evidence base in the management of poststroke dysphagia.

Objective: To evaluate the reliability and responsiveness to change of an audit tool to assess adherence to evidence of effectiveness in the speech and language therapy (SLT) management of poststroke dysphagia.

Design: The tool was used to review SLT practice as part of a randomized study of different education strategies. Medical records were audited before and after delivery of the trial intervention.

Promoting research use in speech and language therapy: a cluster randomized controlled trial to compare the clinical effectiveness and costs of two training strategies.

Objective: To evaluate the clinical and cost effectiveness of two training strategies to promote the use of research evidence in speech and language therapy (SLT) management of poststroke dysphagia.

Design: Pragmatic, cluster randomized trial.

Setting: Seventeen SLT departments in north-west England.