Study that demonstrated the effectiveness of the IRIS domestic violence and abuse programme wins RCGP Research Paper of the Year award

Press release issued: 20 October 2021

A study that demonstrated the ‘real world’ effectiveness (outside a clinical trial) of IRIS, a specialist domestic violence and abuse training, support and referral programme for general practice teams, has won the 2020 Royal College of General Practitioners’ Research Paper of the Year award.

The National Institute for Health Research funded study, published in BMC Medicine in March 2020, was led by Dr Alex Sohal from Queen Mary University of London in collaboration with Professor Gene Feder and Dr Natalia Lewis from the University of Bristol’s Centre for Academic Primary Care (CAPC) and others.

The study found that implementation of the IRIS programme led to a 30-fold increase in domestic violence and abuse referrals for women across 205 general practices in London.

IRIS (Identification & Referral to Improve Safety) had previously been positively evaluated in a randomised controlled trial, led by Professor Feder. It is now the flagship programme of IRISi, a social enterprise established in 2017 by Professor Feder and IRISi’s CEO, Medina Johnson.

Read the full press release on the Centre for Primary Academic Care website.

Further information

About the Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol
The Centre for Academic Primary Care (CAPC) at the University of Bristol is a leading centre for primary care research in the UK, one of nine forming the NIHR School for Primary Care Research. It sits within Bristol Medical School, an internationally recognised centre of excellence for population health research and teaching. Follow us on Twitter: @capcbristol.