The RAID group was set up, with EAAA Dr Rob Major as Chair, to have a group of interested clinicians oversee this area, and make sure all research had value in improving the service.

Who is in the group?

The group is made up of EAAA doctors and critical care paramedics, some of whom have senior academic qualifications and appointments, and Kate Lachowycz, EAAA’s data analyst and subject matter expert.

Rob and Kate work together to refine the research strategy and how it meets the charity’s values. There are also guest members on the group for certain projects or reasons, such as the clinical director of neuro critical care at Addenbrooke’s.

What are the research areas?

RAID has four key research areas, outlined below, but this does not restrict all EAAA clinical research to just these four areas.

Out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) – EAAA attend about 350 OHCAs a year. We’re keen to investigate our data to identify things which could improve these patient’s outcomes, and ultimately save more lives.

Traumatic brain injury – we’re currently looking at our data to identify how we could improve the care of patients with traumatic brain injury. This includes the care we provide at the roadside and also, in partnership with Essex and Herts Air Ambulance and the East of England Ambulance Service Trust, the recovery and aftercare of these patients.

Blood – now we’ve finished the national RePhill blood trial we are undertaking some audit work to support EAAA in developing its own system of providing blood to injured patients.

Aftercare – we’re really lucky to have such a well-developed aftercare team. We know how important their work is and are keen to do qualitative research to prove how much this helps patients and their families following an incident we attended.

Find out more and access the published papers.