Research Projects

Safer Evidence

HIPPOCRATES: Development & Evaluation of interventions targeted at high-risk patient groups

People living in more deprived areas often have shorter lives and worse health than those in less deprived areas. Surgery is meant to help people live longer and improve their quality of life, but major surgery also carries risks. Our previous research has shown that, even when hospital care is just as good, patients from more deprived backgrounds are more likely to develop complications or die after surgery.

The HIPPOCRATES project aims to reduce these inequalities by developing and testing new treatments (called “interventions”) that could help patients from deprived backgrounds recover more safely after major surgery.

The project has six main stages:
 

• First: Use existing data to better understand how deprivation and other risk factors (like long-term conditions or low activity levels) affect surgery outcomes. This will guide which interventions are most likely to help.

• Second: Develop three interventions by working with patients, communities, and healthcare professionals. These may include support to stop smoking or improve fitness before surgery, or new technologies to monitor patients after they leave hospital.

• Third: Adapt an existing national project (the Perioperative Quality Improvement Programme, PQIP) to make testing the interventions in a trial easier and more cost-effective.

• Fourth: Run an initial trial with 420 patients in 12 hospitals to test whether the interventions are practical and effective, and gather patient and clinician feedback.

• Fifth: Carry out a larger trial with 2,390 patients in 40 hospitals, to see if the chosen intervention reduces deaths, time spent in hospital, and other outcomes that matter to patients.       

• Sixth: If more than one intervention looks promising, apply for funding to test them further.

Patients and the public are part of the research team, alongside anaesthetists, surgeons, and researchers. Findings will be shared widely with NHS staff, professional groups, and the public through websites, social media, and patient advocacy groups.

Lead Investigator

Ramani Moonesinghe