RESEARCH NEWS
Above: Michelle Holmes and Dave Newell AECC WELCOMES NEW PHD STUDENTS
Michelle Holmes is one of two new PhD students that will be working alongside Director of Research, Dave Newell as part of research funded between the University of Southampton, the Anglo-European College of Chiropractic, the Royal College of Chiropractors and the Southampton Complementary Medicine Research Trust.
Michelle’s original training was in complementary therapies such as massage, aromatherapy and reflexology. Once qualified, she looked to go into practice but soon realised that the field needed more research. This led Michelle to undertake a Masters programme in Clinical and Health Research which then allowed her to continue towards a PhD. Michelle commented: “For my PhD I’m interested in looking at Patient Reported Outcome Measures or PROMS, which are validated questionnaires that can help to measure somebody’s health status, quality of life and quality of care. They were developed for use in research through randomised controlled trials but findings have shown that they can be beneficial when used in routine clinical practice. This means that they may have an impact on the process and outcomes of care. My research will look at that, but in the context of chiropractic care in lower back pain. My plan is to look at this through a randomised controlled trial as well as carrying out some qualitative work to really see the effect the treatment has on patients. I feel it is important because the theoretical understanding of how it works is really limited and the evaluation of that is relatively new.”
Primarily based in the School of Psychology at the University of Southampton, Michelle will be working with supervisor Dr Felicity Bishop, a Health Psychologist with experience in qualitative research. She will also be working closely with Professor George Lewith who is based in the Primary Care department at the University
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and hopes to benefit from his skills within complementary medicine as well as his extensive background in research. When at the AECC, Michelle will be looking to Dave Newell for his expertise on PROMS and chiropractic care. She adds: “my research is really bringing together all of the expertise, it’s across disciplines and across areas and I’m hoping to bring that all together in my project.”
“I feel very supported at the AECC, as much as I am at Southampton. My time at the AECC will be mainly spent gaining knowledge about chiropractic care; I come from a different background so it’s important to understand the role that PROMS will play in the treatment of back pain. I’m also hoping to do some observations here in the clinic and there is the opportunity for me to do some teaching here. I hope to talk to students about qualitative research methods as it’s an important part of my PhD and I think it should be an important part of an undergraduate student’s education as well.”
Through her research, Michelle aims to get a better understanding of how PROMS can be used in clinical practice. She hopes to further the field and to build on work that has already been done at the AECC.
For more information on our research visit:
www.aecc.ac.uk/research
RESEARCH NEWS
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