Welcome to Project Ideas

Are you looking for a new project? Work with others from far and wide on exciting projects that will be presentable, publishable, and will take you to the next level in your career. Generally, these projects have not started, or where they have, there is still opportunity to lead them.

Take a look at the ideas below and if you are interested, please email haemstarnetwork@gmail.com. We can then direct you towards the correct project lead.

Similarly, if you have your own idea but are not sure where to start, then please get in touch.

Project ideas

  • The role of clinical nurse specialists in non-malignant haematology (are non-malignant haematology patients e.g. ITP, TTP underserved compared to cancer patients?)

  • When does my project need ethics - a review of guidance and how this can be circumvented - and whether this is ethical. E.g. Is it ethical to do an audit with secondary research objectives?

  • Did messaging about the 2021 blood bottle shortage actually cut use? This has been piloted already and is ready to roll out nationally.

  • Frequency of iron dosing in general practice

  • Diagnosis and treatment of heparin-induced thrombocytopaenia

  • The use of unfractionated heparin in UK hospitals.

  • Autologous stem cell transplantation: are any hospitals using a no prophylaxis approach? If not, why not?

  • DOAC levels and drug interactions - national data collection putting together all data on DOAC levels in patients who are on interacting drugs

  • Quality of information given to patients for switching to edoxaban for atrial fibrillation

    • Have they switched people who shouldn't have been switched

  • Follow-up in ITP in remission - do clinicians arrange routine follow-up, give open access, or discharge to GP?

  • How do we investigate and treat breakthrough thrombosis in the UK, and what are the outcomes?

  • How are we using anticoagulation at the end of life?

  • Are people making medical breakthroughs getting older? What is the average age of first author trialists

  • Do crowd-sourced medical therapies for haematological diseases have good evidence of benefit?

  • Do tertiary anticoagulation services improve outcomes (especially in cancer-associated-thrombosis)?

  • Collating and analysing trust protocols for superficial vein thrombophlebitis.

  • NHS England Press Releases - superlatives, how often do the press releases misrepresent the evidence?

  • How is UK research funding spent?

  • Are we over-treating hypermagnesaemia in haematology?

  • A review of the use of the word "unethical" to argue against randomised trials - how often has that been argued, accepted, and then later a randomised trial been approved and run?

  • Worldwide sales of drugs versus global burden of disease. Are we getting value for money?

  • Patient involvement in research - are they listened to? A review of recent trials and how they report patient involvement in protocol development.

  • How are conflicts of interest reported in medical guidelines?

  • Do postgraduate exams adequately assess doctors’ understanding of statistics and critical appraisal?

    • Do clinicians who have sat exams including statistics have better knowledge of stats / are they better at critical appraisal?

  • How good are UK haematologists at critical appraisal?

  • Duplication in review articles - how many are really needed?

    • E.g. "New and emerging agents for sickle cell disease"

  • Does transfusion with group O blood lead to increased rates of bleeding compared with A or B (due to lower vWF levels in group O people)?

  • Can we categorically show that non-malignant haematology is underserved by research?

  • DOACs for unlicensed use, review / survey

  • Management of secondary polycythemia - does venesection make a difference?

  • Atrial fibrillation management and outcomes in induction chemo / transplant. What is the risk of stroke?

  • Qualitative study of patients views on restarting DOACs - how scared are patients to restart anticoagulation and does this affect compliance?

  • DOACs and breastfeeding. Does the fact that DOACs aren't recommended for breastfeeding women put women off breastfeeding so they can have a DOAC instead of LMWH?

  • How often does a bone marrow change management?

  • Hydroxycarbamide in Children (<18 yrs) with sickle cell disease. What is the best regimen for dosing, monitoring and escalation?