On Monday, 17th February 2025, the AGE Research Group and the Ageing Sarcopenia and Multimorbidity theme of the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre welcomed an international group of Professors of Geriatric Medicine led by Professor Hidenori Arai from the National Centre for Geriatrics and Gerontology in Japan to Newcastle University and Newcastle Hospitals. The visit of this 13 strong delegation provided a unique opportunity to exchange insights on research and clinical practice, encourage collaboration, and nurture ideas for innovation.
The day started with an in-depth introduction to Newcastle’s pioneering ageing research, including novel developments in patient cohorts, experimental medicine and clinical trials. This included a tour to specialist facilities at the Clinical Ageing Research Unit (CARU), with demonstrations of portable tools being used to assess skeletal muscle in patients own homes and remote monitoring techniques being developed by Newcastle’s world-leading gait lab.
A key part of the visit was an opportunity to learn about how Newcastle Hospitals are leading in digital hospital care, including work on electronic implementation of the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2) System, a standardised method for early detection of patient deterioration used across the NHS. Building on this work, Newcastle Hospitals are bringing together data on frailty scoring, delirium screening and NEWS into electronic dashboards to facilitate clinical decision-making and monitoring.
Co-Lead for the BRC’s Informatics and Precision Care for an Ageing Population Theme Dr Chris Plummer, who is also Chief Clinical Information Officer at Newcastle Hospitals, invited the group to the Royal Victoria Infirmary. Together with Dr Lynsey Threlfall, Consultant in Acute Medicine, Melissa Burnside, Deterioration & Sepsis Lead Specialist Nurse, and Dr Amanda Kilsby, Consultant Geriatrician, they outlined their work to further improve the accuracy and utility of NEWS2 by incorporating additional patient data and adjusting the scoring process through novel machine-learning techniques, providing a precision medicine approach tailored to different groups of patients.
Dr Kilsby gave an excellent overview of how Newcastle Hospitals can and does use the electronic patient record and link with the Great North Care Record to triangulate its data about older people to provide a more accurate picture and allow tailored intervention earlier.
Dr Plummer and Dr Threlfall then outlined their research project which is creating a machine learning algorithm designed to evaluate physiological data, such as observations, alongside some of these wider data points to predict deterioration more accurately in patient cohorts.
Dr Threlfall from the BRC Leadership Track for Informatics and Precision Care for an Ageing Population said: “It was a pleasure to welcome our international visitors to the Royal Victoria Infirmary where we were able to demonstrate digital care in action and discuss our ambitions for the future. With a focus on older peoples medicine we discussed the integration of electronic observations into our electronic patient record and how this enables us to keep track of our deteriorating patients. We were grateful to Melissa Burnside (our lead sepsis and deterioration nurse) for her demonstration of the Newcastle adaptations to NEWS 2 that allow us to record other parameters and apply personal variances for some of our specialised and complex patients such as those in the transplant service. It was interesting and empowering to see that we all face similar complexities with human – computer interactions and providing tailored care to our older populations. It offers hope that individual breakthroughs may lead to global tools that can improve healthcare and its delivery for many populations rather than a few.”
Dr Threlfall from the BRC Leadership Track for Informatics and Precision Care for an Ageing Population said: “It was a pleasure to welcome our international visitors to the Royal Victoria Infirmary where we were able to demonstrate digital care in action and discuss our ambitions for the future. With a focus on older peoples medicine we discussed the integration of electronic observations into our electronic patient record and how this enables us to keep track of our deteriorating patients. We were grateful to Melissa Burnside (our lead sepsis and deterioration nurse) for her demonstration of the Newcastle adaptations to NEWS 2 that allow us to record other parameters and apply personal variances for some of our specialised and complex patients such as those in the transplant service.
It was interesting and empowering to see that we all face similar complexities with human – computer interactions and providing tailored care to our older populations. It offers hope that individual breakthroughs may lead to global tools that can improve healthcare and its delivery for many populations rather than a few.”
The final part of the day took place at the Catalyst building where visitors were welcomed by Professor Brian Walker, Strategic Advisor, Executive Office at Newcastle University, Professor Nic Palmarini, Director of National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA), and Professor Lynne Corner, Director of VOICE and COO at the UK National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA) Newcastle University. They heard about the work of the National Innovation Centre Ageing and VOICE and in turn presented areas of their own research.
This visit marked a significant step in fostering global collaboration in ageing research and digital health care. The NIHR Newcastle is committed to driving forward impactful research and clinical advancements in ageing, ensuring that our growing older population receives the highest standard of care. We look forward to further engagement with our international colleagues and the exciting opportunities that lie ahead.
Dr Lisa Alcock showed the group the gait lab at the Clinical Ageing Research Unit (CARU).
Professor Miles Witham demonstrated the use of portable tools to assess skeletal muscle in patients own homes.
Melissa Burnside demonstrated the Newcastle adaptations to NEWS 2 to the international group of professors.
Professor Nic Palmarini and Professor Lynne Corner shared the work of the National Innovation Centre Ageing and VOICE and welcomed questions and invited to collaborations and exchange.