All News A–Z

Bangor Academics create impact with BMJ papers

A paper co-authored by a Bangor academic has made the front cover of the prestigious British Medical Journal while another research re-evaluation published by the BMJ, in the same month, received international media attention.

Publication date: 29 September 2015

Bangor Institute for Health and Medical Research Launch

Bangor University is launching the new Institute of Health and Medical Research on Thursday February 25 th 2016. Building on an established foundation of research excellence, the new Bangor Institute for Health and Medical Research (BIHMR) will facilitate more interdisciplinary research that spans discovery in the laboratory through to research that solves complex health problems in the real world. In this way, BIHMR will contribute to improvements in local health and healthcare, as well as making an impact across Wales, the United Kingdom and internationally.

Publication date: 22 February 2016

Bangor University contributes to new PRIME Centre Wales for primary and emergency care research

Bangor University, alongside partner universities Cardiff, Swansea, and South Wales, has been awarded £3.6M for the ‘PRIME Centre Wales’ for Primary and Emergency Care Research. The funding from Health and Care Research Wales will support PRIME Centre Wales to improve the health and well-being of people in Wales and internationally, by conducting high quality research on topics of national policy priority in primary, emergency and unscheduled care.

Publication date: 30 June 2015

Bangor University rated Gold

Bangor University has been awarded the Gold standard in the UK Government’s new Teaching Excellence Framework, and is the only University in Wales to achieve this standard. The framework assesses universities against a range of criteria and is part of the UK government’s plans for raising standards in higher education. It also gives students more information so that they can make the most informed decisions when deciding which university to attend.

Publication date: 22 June 2017

Bangor University receives funding to build health and social care research infrastructure 2018-2020

Research Groups in the Bangor Institute of Health and Medical Research (BIHMR) have been awarded significant amounts of further funding from the Welsh Government.

Publication date: 18 December 2017

Bangor University subjects join elite in world table

Newly published analysis of the latest influential QS World University Rankings, which saw Bangor University soar to 411th position worldwide, now provides further information on rankings for different subject areas among the world’s best universities. Six subjects and one subject area taught at Bangor University feature among the world’s elite universities in this year’s release of the QS World University Rankings by Subject, with Agriculture and Forestry appearing in the top 100 institutions worldwide who teach the subject and rising from among last year’s 200 top Universities.

Publication date: 8 March 2017

Bangor University’s satisfied students

Bangor University continues to rise in popularity among its students. The University again retains its place at 14th in the UK and is second in Wales in a new university experience survey (T imes Higher Education Student Experience Survey 2016 ).

Publication date: 17 March 2016

Bench to Bedside and Beyond

Bangor University officially launched its innovative new institute on Thursday (25th February) to widespread acclaim. The Bangor Institute for Health and Medical Research (BIHMR) will sustain and extend Bangor’s already excellent record in health and medical research, bringing together renowned academics in a broad range of fields.

Publication date: 14 March 2016

Bilingual Prescription labels can now be introduced

A Welsh language or bilingual service is vital for the welfare of Welsh speaking patients, according to an enquiry by the Welsh Language Commissioner. A recommendation endorsed by the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for Wales is for bilingual labels on prescription medicines to be made available to patients. A team comprising language specialists and pharmacists at Bangor University and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has made the first step by translating 30 cautionary instructions given to patients on prescription medicines.

Publication date: 24 February 2016

Bowel Cancer challenge revealed by international research

Bangor University’s North Wales Centre for Primary Care Research has been involved in an international large–scale review of treatment times for people with bowel cancer. Co-ordinated in the UK by Cancer Research UK, with Cancer Research Wales funding the Welsh arm of this study, and reported in BMJ Open , the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (ICBP) – a collaboration between countries with similar healthcare systems and high-quality data – tracked each step people with bowel cancer went through before treatment. They examined questionnaires, completed by 2,866 international patients and their doctors, as well as medical records of patients diagnosed between 2013 and 2015.

Publication date: 3 December 2018

Can ‘lay carers’ help more at the end of life?

Most people in the UK who are dying would prefer to be looked after at home. Health care professionals try to enable this to happen. A new research project led by Bangor University is investigating one way to make this a reality for more people. Home care is usually provided by District Nurses, working with many other team members including general practitioners, hospice doctors and nurses, and Macmillan or Marie Curie services. Family members are taught how to care for their loved one, and generally call a District Nurse if there are difficult symptoms. As people get weaker in the last few weeks or days of life, they become unable to swallow. At this point, a syringe driver is set up to give medicines under the skin over 24 hours. While this often relieves most symptoms, some symptoms may break through and need extra doses of medication (called ‘breakthrough’ symptoms). Then, the family usually call in the district nurse who can give extra doses of medicine as injections. But, this can take a long time, often more than an hour. The wait can be distressing for the patient and their carers, who then feel powerless to help. Usually, family care would not include giving injections for these breakthrough symptoms, even though this is legal and practical. Bangor University is working with partners in Cardiff University and Gloucester NHS Trust, to research whether lay carer role extension to give these ‘as needed’ injections should be more widely adopted or not in the UK.

Publication date: 15 March 2017

Chris Coleman visits Bangor University to receive Honour

Chis Coleman, Wales’ national football team manager joins Bangor Business School graduating students to receive an Honorary Fellowship, marking Wales’ outstanding achievement at Euro 2016, when the national team reached the semi-finals in an historic and memorable campaign.

Publication date: 17 July 2017

Getting Welsh GPs to act more quickly on cancer symptoms

A research project at Bangor University will look at early cancer diagnosis - a priority area for the Welsh Government, as late presentation of cancer is thought to significantly contribute to the relatively poor survival of Welsh cancer patients compared to the rest of the UK. The award had been made to Professor Richard Neal from the University's North Wales Centre for Primary Care Research , himself a practicing G.P and a world-leader in the field of early cancer diagnosis.

Publication date: 1 March 2016

Higher use of general health care services throughout adult life linked with traumatic childhoods

Experiencing physical, sexual or emotional abuse as a child, or other stresses such as living in a household affected by domestic violence, substance abuse or mental illness, can lead to higher levels of health service use throughout adulthood. A research paper in the Journal of Health Service Research & Policy provides, for the first time, the statistical evidence showing that, regardless of socio-economic class or other demographics, people who have adverse childhood experiences use more health and medical services through their lifetime.

Publication date: 12 July 2017

Low Cancer Survival in UK linked to delays in referring patients for tests

Researchers based in the North Wales Centre for Primary Care Research in Wrexham have recently completed their involvement in a new in-depth study of cancer that could pin-point ways to improve cancer survival rates in Wales.

Publication date: 12 June 2015

Major Festival of Behaviour Change announced

Behaviour change is widely recognised as an essential tool for public services and organisations responding to the considerable contemporary social and demographic changes we are experiencing in Wales, and beyond. A major Festival of Behaviour Change (#BehFest16) running for two weeks between 9-20 May at Bangor University, will showcase the latest thinking in applied behaviour change science, to individuals and organizations interested in learning about, designing, and implementing some of these behaviour change techniques for the benefit of their organisations or of the public at large.

Publication date: 27 April 2016

Media coverage for International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership

Publication date: 29 May 2015

People with dementia benefit from goal-oriented therapy

Ninety people who are living with dementia and their carers from across north Wales, have contributed to new research findings which have shown that personalised cognitive rehabilitation therapy can help people with early stage dementia to significantly improve their ability to engage in important everyday activities and tasks. The large-scale trial presented at the international Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2017 on Tuesday July 18, found that cognitive rehabilitation leads to people seeing satisfying progress in areas that enable them to maintain their functioning and independence.

Publication date: 18 July 2017

Prize for NWCPCR student at NCRI Cancer Conference

Publication date: 5 November 2014

Signposts for improving cancer survival rates in Wales

The findings of a new in-depth study of cancer could pin-point ways to improve cancer survival rates in Wales. The results of the latest International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (ICBP) study revealed today in the BMJ Open is the first to show that GP’s readiness to investigate for cancer – either directly or by referral to secondary care – correlates with cancer survival. In addition, the survey reveals that GPs in the UK and within Wales, were less likely in an on line survey using examples of clinical cases, to refer or investigate patients with possible cancer symptoms when they first present, compared with the other countries in the study: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Publication date: 28 May 2015

Six from Bangor University appointed Health and Care Research Wales Senior Research Leaders

Six health and social care researchers at Bangor University have been appointed Health and Care Research Wales Senior Research Leaders by Health Care Research Wales.

Publication date: 25 March 2016

Social Science research improves quality of life and care for people with dementia

Research by Bangor University, which was carried out in several care homes in north Wales, is featured in a booklet launched in the House of Commons on Tuesday 15 March. The latest issue of the Campaign for Social Science’s ‘Making the Case for the Social Sciences’ briefings focuses on a number of research projects on dementia at universities in the UK.

Publication date: 14 March 2016

Tenovus Funded PhD Studentship

Patient choice in prostate cancer hormone treatment (Continuous androgen deprivation vs intermittent androgen deprivation)

Publication date: 15 June 2015

The Appliance of Science!

Bangor University’s Science Festival is back for its seventh year and welcomes everyone to explore and discuss science through talks hands-on activities exhibitions demonstrations - all free to attend.

Publication date: 16 February 2017

The alcohol harm paradox explained

New research from a collaboration including Bangor University, Liverpool John Moores University and Alcohol Research UK explains why people in deprived communities have higher levels of alcohol-related ill health than people in non-deprived communities, despite drinking the same amounts of alcohol – the alcohol harm paradox.

Publication date: 18 February 2016

Two Bangor University Professor shortlisted in the inaugural Welsh Women’s Awards

Two Professors at Bangor University have been shortlisted in the inaugural Welsh Women’s Awards 2019 . Both Clare Wilkinson and Debbie Roberts of the School of Health Sciences have been shortlisted for the Services to Education Award.

Publication date: 27 March 2019

“Can earlier symptomatic diagnosis improve cancer outcomes in Wales”

A report prepared for Public Health Wales by Bangor University makes recommendations for improving cancer outcomes in Wales. The report, “Can earlier symptomatic diagnosis improve cancer outcomes in Wales” is written by Professor Richard Neal of the University’s North Wales Centre for Primary Care Research has been launched at a Conference in Manchester (14 June): Cancer Data and Outcomes Conference 2016: Using data to drive services. Professor Neal is a general practitioner and a leading authority on improving GPs cancer detection rates.

Publication date: 15 June 2016