BREATHE for Bradford
In 2020, City of Research partner, Yorkshire Ambulance Service, alongside The University of Hull, University of York, The University of Sheffield and Hull York Medical School, worked together to create BREATHE. It is a study that helps clinicians, patients and carers use non-pharmacological interventions to help manage chronic breathlessness at home. It uses an acronym – BREATHE – to remind users of the techniques they can use.
B – Be reassured
R – Resting positions – get comfortable and relax your shoulders
E – Exercises to help calm your breathing
A – Airflow using a fan, or opening windows
T – Take your time, nice and slow
H – Help with fears, use your action plan
E – Educate and read the booklet for practical solutions to help
BREATHE is a feasibility study, to see if it is possible and acceptable for paramedics on the road to collect consent and data from breathless patients and carry out the intervention, before a full study takes place on a larger scale to see if the intervention is effective.
Watch a short video about the study here:
Read the study page here – https://www.hyms.ac.uk/research/research-centres-and-groups/wolfson/breathe
Read the Protocol Paper – Northgraves M, Cohen J, Allgar V, et al. A feasibility cluster randomised controlled trial of a paramedic-administered breathlessness management intervention for acute-on-chronic breathlessness (BREATHE): Study protocol. ERJ Open Res 2021; in press (https://doi.org/10.1183/23120541.00955-2020).
Read the Paper – Hutchinson A, Allgar V, Cohen J, Currow D, Griffin S, Hart S, Hird K, Hodge A, Mason S, Northgraves M, Reeve J, Swan F, Johnson M. Mixed-methods feasibility cluster randomised controlled trial of a paramedic-administered breathlessness management intervention for acute-on-chronic breathlessness (BREATHE): Study findings. ERJ Open Res, 2022. Doi:10.1183/23120541.00257-2022
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