Heartlands conference puts research at the heart of tackling health inequalities
Published on 19/10/2026
The first two-day Heartlands Research and Quality Improvement Conference has been hailed a success.
More than 200 colleagues came together at the start of October to celebrate and share research and quality improvement projects that are taking place at Heartlands Hospital.
The area surrounding the hospital has some of the highest levels of health inequality in the UK, including lower life expectancy and higher rates of long-term conditions.
The strong turnout reflected colleagues’ commitment to research, reducing inequalities and improving health outcomes. It also provided an important opportunity to build on Heartlands' proud research and improvement legacy and to showcase the scale of work now taking place across the hospital. The conference formed part of Heartlands’ Year of Research 2026 and built on the establishment of the Heartlands Research Group earlier this year.
The first day focused on research designed around the needs of local people, with speakers sharing work on access to obesity care, inequalities in asthma and allergy, cardio-renal metabolic conditions, childhood HIV and tuberculosis, and care following pregnancy loss.
Delegates welcomed Dr Chris Ellis, retired consultant physician, who delivered the keynote address, ‘Research at Heartlands Hospital – the first 80 years’, with Dr Martin Dedicoat, Consultant in Infectious diseases.
Day two turned the spotlight on quality improvement and the role of teams in delivering better care. Sessions explored the human side of change and featured projects including opt-out blood-borne virus testing in emergency departments, the PERIPREM journey, delirium care in intensive care, the management of deteriorating patients and stronger medicines safety governance.
Poster displays gave delegates the opportunity to explore work submitted by colleagues and discuss the projects directly with presenters.
A big thank you to all of those who chaired a session, presented, produced a poster, submitted an abstract, hosted a stand or who helped out behind the scenes.
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