Projects and activities

The Respiratory Infections HIT’s research included looking at what ‘bugs’ (bacteria or viruses) cause infections, how people get these infections and how they spread in families and communities.

Part of the research looked at how parents get advice from their GP or nurse, what they do to care for themselves and what advice and help they need when making those decisions. A group of parents from across Bristol advised the team about these and other issues. This study, called TARGET, produced:

• A website giving parents advice on what to do when their child has a cough
• An animation exploring what parents want from a GP consultation for their child’s cough or respiratory tract infection
• Other resources including parent information leaflets and posters

Other projects for the team included:

• Developing advice sessions for first time parents, to help them know what to expect regarding infant infections in the first year of life, how to care for their child during infections and how to minimise infection transmission
• A pilot extending the existing respiratory clinic at Southmead Hospital to include patients with bronchiectasis
• Development and provision of near real time, GP practice and hospital-specific antibiotic prescribing and resistance data
• The evaluation of new testing technology that may reduce the time to diagnosis and prognosis in both research and clinical practice