Yusuf Soliman
President, Aston Haematology Society
View committee profileResearch opportunity · AHS-RES-2026-001
SHOT Recommendation Recurrence Analysis
A student-led research project investigating the recurrence and intervention strength of patient-safety recommendations published by the UK’s Serious Hazards of Transfusion haemovigilance scheme between 2015 and 2025.
Project status
Expressions of Interest Open — Pending Final Protocol and Novelty Verification
This is an expression-of-interest round, not confirmation of study approval. This student-led project is not endorsed by SHOT.- Research category
- Transfusion Medicine / Patient Safety / Health Services Research
- Study design
- Longitudinal document-based content analysis
- Duration
- Approximately 10 weeks from formal commencement
- Commencement date
- To be confirmed
People behind the project
Student Project Leads
Both leads are undergraduate students. Neither is acting as a consultant or academic supervisor.
Chiagoziem Nneke
Research Team Lead, Aston Haematology Society
View committee profileAcademic Supervisor: To Be Confirmed
Background and rationale
Overview
Recurrence and Strength of Serious Hazards of Transfusion Recommendations, 2015–2025: A Longitudinal Content Analysis of a National Haemovigilance Scheme
Serious Hazards of Transfusion (SHOT) is the United Kingdom’s independent haemovigilance scheme, responsible for collecting and analysing information about transfusion-related adverse events and errors.
SHOT publishes annual reports containing recommendations intended to improve transfusion safety and prevent avoidable harm. Despite improvements in transfusion practice, several patient-safety concerns continue to appear across successive reports.
This project will systematically examine SHOT recommendations published between 2015 and 2025. The research team will investigate how frequently recommendations recur, classify their intervention strength and examine whether particular types of recommendations are associated with subsequent recurrence.
The project will also assess whether recommendations identify measurable objectives, implementation deadlines and accountable individuals or organisations.
Source documents: Annual SHOT ReportsResearch Question
Are behaviour-dependent transfusion-safety recommendations more likely to recur in subsequent SHOT annual reports than recommendations involving stronger system-level interventions?
Research Objectives
- Identify and catalogue eligible recommendations published in SHOT annual reports between 2015 and 2025.
- Quantify the frequency and duration of recommendation recurrence.
- Classify recommendations according to a predefined hierarchy of intervention strength.
- Assess the presence of measurable targets, deadlines and accountable owners.
- Explore associations between recommendation characteristics and subsequent recurrence.
- Identify potential implications for the design and implementation of transfusion-safety recommendations.
Study Design
Longitudinal content analysis of publicly available SHOT annual reports.
No patient recruitment or direct access to confidential clinical records is planned.
The study will use a predefined coding framework and independent assessment by multiple reviewers.
Final protocol, novelty verification, academic supervision and relevant governance checks remain pending. Publicly available data do not remove the need to check applicable research requirements.
Before the protocol is finalised
Research Novelty Assessment
Status: Preliminary assessment completed — further verification ongoing.
An initial literature assessment identified previous publications describing SHOT recommendations, longitudinal transfusion-safety trends and recurring patient-safety concerns.
However, the proposed combination of recommendation-level recurrence analysis, intervention-strength classification and assessment of implementation accountability may represent a distinct contribution.
A comprehensive novelty review, including database and conference-abstract searches, will be completed before the final protocol is approved.
Remaining verification work
The final review will check the following sources and document the search strategy, results and any overlapping work.
From reports to a research dataset
How the Research Will Be Conducted
The proposed stages below will be refined through protocol development and academic review.
Stage 1Literature and Novelty Review
Review existing literature to determine whether equivalent recommendation-level analyses have been published.
DeliverableCompleted novelty assessment and research gap statement.
Stage 2Source Document Collection
Obtain the eligible SHOT annual reports from 2015 to 2025. Record report versions, publication details and source locations.
DeliverableVerified source-document register.
Stage 3Recommendation Identification
Identify individual recommendation statements within the annual reports. Apply predefined rules for compound recommendations and assign each recommendation a unique identifier.
DeliverableMaster recommendation dataset.
Stage 4Coding Framework Development
Develop and pilot a standardised framework covering the following fields.
- Recommendation year
- Clinical domain
- Target actor
- Intervention strength
- Specificity
- Deadline
- Accountable owner
- Recurrence classification
DeliverableFinal coding manual and extraction template.
Stage 5Independent Coding
Two reviewers independently classify eligible recommendations. Disagreements are resolved through a predefined arbitration process.
DeliverableValidated coded dataset.
Stage 6Statistical Analysis
Calculate recommendation frequencies, recurrence patterns and distributions of intervention strength. Explore associations where methodologically appropriate.
DeliverableStatistical tables and figures.
Stage 7Manuscript Preparation
Prepare the introduction, methods, results and discussion. Review the manuscript with the project team and academic supervisor once appointed.
DeliverableComplete manuscript suitable for journal consideration.
Stage 8Dissemination
Identify appropriate conferences and journals. Prepare an abstract, poster or manuscript submission where appropriate.
DeliverableSubmission-ready academic output.
Your contribution
What Will I Be Doing?
Students may contribute to different parts of the work, according to their interests, availability and the project’s requirements.
No prior publication experience is required. Students should be willing to learn, communicate reliably and contribute consistently.
Research participation does not guarantee authorship. Authorship will be determined by substantive contributions in accordance with the project’s agreed authorship policy and relevant journal requirements.
An indicative workstream
Approximately ten weeks, from commencement
These are research-workstream targets, not guaranteed publication dates. The schedule starts from a confirmed project commencement date—not from website publication.
- Week 1
Novelty review and protocol preparation.
- Week 2
Coding framework development and pilot testing.
- Weeks 3–6
Independent coding and recommendation extraction.
- Week 7
Arbitration and dataset validation.
- Week 8
Statistical analysis.
- Weeks 9–10
Manuscript preparation and review.
What the work may produce
Expected Outputs and Authorship
Potential outputs include:
- A structured dataset of SHOT recommendations
- Descriptive statistical analysis
- Visualisations of recommendation recurrence
- A conference abstract or poster
- A manuscript prepared for submission to an appropriate peer-reviewed journal
Publication and authorship are not guaranteed.
Research participation does not guarantee authorship. Authorship will be determined by substantive contributions in accordance with the project’s agreed authorship policy and relevant journal requirements.
Before you apply
Eligibility and Application Process
This initial opportunity is intended for eligible Aston Haematology Society committee members. The project leads will check membership and eligibility manually after submission.
You do not need an account, invitation or matching record on the public committee page to submit. An Aston University email address is requested so the leads can contact you; entering it does not verify your identity.
Read the project details, complete the short expression-of-interest form and wait to hear from the project leads. Successful applicants will be contacted by email. There is no automatic acceptance or rejection.
Selection and contribution expectations will be clarified before formal commencement. You can ask questions through the contact page.
Take the next step
Register Your Interest
SHOT Recommendation Recurrence Analysis
A short form, followed by a human review. Tell us what interests you and how you would like to contribute.
No prior publication experience required. No guaranteed selection or authorship.