CABOT

About the project

The collaboration aiming to build occupational therapy research (CABOT) project brought about the ideal innovation and invention platform by presenting expert researchers with real world clinical issues and problems to solve.

Dialogue between OTs working across the trust in a sequence of meetings with University researchers lead to over 15 more detailed discussions of some of the over 70 original ideas identified.

These ideas spanned:

• addressing issues/problems that patients have

• technology to aid diagnosis and intervention selection

• improving efficiency and effectiveness of the services

• management systems and tasks

• and everything from purely mechanical to purely hi-tech IT.

Matching University research strengths with issues acknowledged as useful by public engagement and where Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust staff had capacity to engage has led to many teams moving towards funded research. Project teams were formed of OTs and CATCH academics to work the ideas into a stage that they could apply for research funding. The University with some in-kind match from the Trust has funded five such activities in CABOT 2.

"The Occupational Therapy (OT) services have patients who have a spectrum of functional impairments – that can last a few weeks to the long-term – who can benefit from rehabilitation and/or use of assistive technology.

"The breadth and depth of research experience in CATCH, which incorporates the Rehabilitation and Assistive Technology research group, offers the prospect of a step change in bidding for many multidisciplinary research and development collaborative projects."

– Dr Peter Cudd, Senior Researcher at the University of Sheffield

"While developing the research capacity of the OT service, CATCH has gained access to clinical collaboration and service users for impactful research."

– Simon Butler, CATCH Centre Manager