PrimaryBreathe research to help people suffering with chronic breathlessness across the UK
A new research programme called PrimaryBreathe will launch this September, with a mission to develop and evaluate breathlessness support that could be made available to everyone who needs it across the UK.
Over the next five years, the research team will develop and test an intervention to help people suffering from chronic breathlessness. The new intervention will be developed with patients and primary care staff specifically for use in primary care. It will be underpinned by the educational tool developed by the Cambridge Breathlessness Intervention Service, called the Breathing Thinking Functioning model.
The ultimate aim is that if the new intervention is found to be effective, that it will become available to anyone in the UK who has chronic breathlessness, whatever their underlying condition or disease stage, and wherever they live.
The research will be funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and jointly led by Dr Anna Spathis, Assistant Professor and Honorary Consultant in Palliative Medicine, and Jonathan Mant, Professor of Primary Care Research, both at the University of Cambridge’s Primary Care Unit.
The five-year research programme aims to give general practice staff the skills to help their breathless patients feel better, in control and out of hospital. Patients and staff are enthusiastic about this work and have already been giving us advice. For example, they want treatment to be available by telephone or video, so people do not have to leave their homes.”
– Dr Anna Spathis, joint chief investigator
Find out more
You can see the full announcement about PrimaryBreathe on the Primary Care Unit website