CIRU's Ukrainian Electronic Health Needs Survey

CIRU’s Ukrainian

Electronic Health Needs Survey

Some of you might already know that EDGE belongs to the University of Southampton’s department: The Clinical Informatics Research Unit (CIRU). From time to time we like to share other news and projects that happen within the unit, just so people can learn more about CIRU and what we are all about. A really important piece of research that is currently taking place is the Ukrainian Electronic Health Needs survey, that colleagues from CIRU are leading on, along with another University of Southampton department, The Centre for Population Change (CPC).

CIRU’s Senior Research Fellow Dr Michael Head and Research and Insight Analyst Dr Ken Brackstone launched the survey, ‘Health Needs Survey for Ukrainian displaced persons and refugees’ on 18th April 2022 and as of the 19th of May, over 6300 participants have completed the survey and the data is ongoing.

The research survey is aimed at residents of Ukraine, who have fled the country or are displaced but still within Ukraine. The purpose of this research is to find out the current health concerns and issues of the refugee and displaced populations. The survey asks questions that include what access the participants have to healthcare, vaccination against COVID-19, access to essential medicines as well as to sanitary products, and oral, skin and eye health. The intended outcome is that the results can support decision-making on issues such as logistics and healthcare needs, as well as improve on the quality of life and care of the Ukrainian population.

The findings are being disseminated to humanitarian and health stakeholders to support their response in helping these vulnerable groups.

Below is a quote from Dr Michael Head, Senior Research Fellow, who is leading on this piece of research at CIRU:

“With any conflict, there are a huge number of urgent knowledge gaps. This study can support the humanitarian response by provide information on population movement and health needs in real-time”

For further information, visit CIRU’s webpage here.