CLARITY Current Projects

Access-VIGIL (Access to Video Intervention In Geriatric cLinics) will look at whether living with frailty is a risk factor for not being unable to access a heath appointment by video. The study has been designed in collaboration with members of the Health Together Partnership. We will survey service users from hospital and community clinics across Bristol. We will ask people about their access, skills, and use of technology.  This information will help us to understand how best to deliver services to people living with frailty. It will also help to develop the VIGIL study.

 View a summary of the study here.

Project Details
Principal Investigator: Dr Philip Braude
Planned End Date: 01/07/2022
Local Ref: QI45607

VIGIL (Video Intervention In Geriatric cLinics) will look at comparing face-to-face against video appointments for delivering a geriatrician assessment before surgery. Many older people having an operation at North Bristol Trust are reviewed by a geriatrician (medical specialist in older people’s health). The review aims to improve health before surgery and support a person’s decision making by exploring the risks and benefits of surgery when taking into account their underlying health and values. Few other hospitals offer this service. Video clinics may allow better access to specialised services for people across the UK, while reducing travel with its environmental impact, as well as financial and physical burden on patients.

Patients will be invited to join the study if they are deciding on having an aortic artery aneurysm operation (enlargement of the main blood vessel in the body). The type of appointment, either face-to-face or by video, will be selected at random by a computer. This is a feasibility study to find out if a large study could work to compare the two types of appointment. This smaller study will not show which is better, but will help to sort out the complicated process of running a large trial in the future.

View a summary of the study here.

Project Details
Principal Investigator: Dr Philip Braude
Planned End Date: 01/06/2023
Local Ref: 5110

Funded by Bristol Health Research Charity and the British Geriatrics Society

FiTR 1 study will look at older adults admitted to hospital with serious injuries across all of England. We will look at how living with frailty affects a person’s recovery after a serious injury. Frailty is a measure of how vulnerable a person is to the effects of an illness or injury. The information used for this study is held by the national injury database run by the Trauma and Audit Research Network (TARN) and is managed by the University of Manchester. TARN collect information from all hospitals for people admitted with serious injuries.

View a summary of the study here.

Project Details
Principal Investigator: Dr Philip Braude
Planned End Date: 01/05/2022
Local Ref: 5036

FiTR 2 study will look at older adults admitted to hospital with serious injuries across all of England. We will look at how a geriatrician review (medical specialist in older people’s health) affects a person’s recovery after a serious injury. Geriatric assessment has been shown in single hospitals to cut the number of deaths up to a year after injury. The information used for this study is held by the national injury database run by the Trauma and Audit Research Network (TARN) and is managed by the University of Manchester. TARN collect information from all hospitals for people admitted with serious injuries.

View summary of study here.

Project Details
Principal Investigator: Dr Philip Braude
Planned End Date: 01/05/2022
Local Ref: 5036

DEFINE(surgery): Decisions Encompassing Frailty in Novel Environments will look at the abilities of surgeons to assess older people with complex heath needs. The study will ask healthcare professionals working in surgery to assess several made-up patient cases (case vignettes) using a frailty tool. They then will complete a questionnaire on how they feel they are able to recognise and manage older people living with frailty.

The information from this study will tell us how well healthcare professionals working in surgery are able to recognise frailty, and their experiences and confidence in doing this. We hope to improve education around frailty as well as make recommendations for hospital admission pathways.

Project Details
Principal Investigator: Dr Philip Braude
Planned End Date: 01/08/2022
Local Ref: 5146

Funded by the British Geriatric Society.