RCQPS COVID-19 funding awarded for quality and patient safety research

The Research Collaborative in Quality and Patient Safety (RCQPS) has awarded four projects funding totalling of €560,000 for new health research in quality and patient safety.

RCQPS is a collaborative initiative between the Health Research Board (HRB), HSE, National Quality Improvement Team and RCPI.

 It was established in 2013 to advance nationally relevant research in the area of quality and patient safety (QPS).

In June the 2020 cycle of RCQPS launched a funding opportunity to support the national research response to COVID-19. In a highly competitive process, four awards were selected by an international panel from 35 eligible applications.

These projects address a broad range of health areas including medication safety, interventions among homeless populations, opioid substitution treatment and long-term residential care. A short synopsis and details of the emerging investigators are provided at the links below.

On these projects, Dr Lucia Prihodova, Research Manager at RCPI, said: “The COVID-19 crisis has meant health and social care systems have had to rapidly adapt and put new processes and procedures in place for patients and all healthcare related workers. Through these projects there is a unique opportunity to learn from these adaptations and to improve the quality of approaches throughout and beyond this pandemic.”

Dr Terry McWade, CEO, RCPI, commented: “We are delighted to be part of the Research Collaborative in Quality and Patient Safety which is helping to fund such vital research during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our hope is that through these projects we can substantially advance research in the areas of quality and patient safety at this unprecedented time.”

This award scheme is co-funded by the HRB and the HSE NQI Team. RCPI manage the application and peer review process and the HRB manage funded projects. The model used for this scheme involves collaboration between knowledge users and academic researchers.