CRN Greater Manchester appoints new Ageing specialty lead

Dr Emma Vardy has been appointed the NIHR Clinical Research Network Greater Manchester specialty lead for ageing.

Dr Vardy is a Consultant Geriatrician and the Clinical Dementia and Delirium Lead at Salford Royal. She is also Salford’s Associate Chief Clinical Information Officer for Global Digital Exemplar (GDE) pathway redesign and lead for the award winning delirium and dementia GDE project, which introduced a new and more accurate electronic assessment tool for delirium.

This increased screening of over 65s on admission to hospital, and those who become newly confused as an inpatient. It also triggers the right patient treatment and management packages and guides referral on to other services. Figures from Salford Royal’s first year of using the tool showed a reduction of 11 per cent in average length of hospital stay for patients with delirium, while the increased screening saw the number of identified cases per year rising by 34 per cent.

Dr Vardy is also a member of the operational and strategic committee for Greater Manchester’s Dementia United, leading the delirium workstream, has advised on the development of the Local Health and Care Record Exemplar (LHCRE) for dementia and has been a committee member for the NICE dementia quality standards update committee.

In addition, Dr Vardy chairs the dementia and related disorders special interest group for the British Geriatrics Society and is Strategic Clinical Network Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire clinical dementia lead. Her research experience includes the clinical, pathological, genetic and imaging aspects of dementia and she’s recently published on quality Improvement in delirium and phenylketonuria in older people.

In her new role, she is looking forward to reinvigorating the NIHR portfolio for the ageing theme and said: “Greater Manchester has a number of exciting projects involving older people, but is not performing at the national average with regards to the NIHR portfolio. I hope through collaboration and engagement both at a regional and a national level to transform that picture to reflect the wealth of expertise we have in Greater Manchester.”