Multi-day recordings and adaptive stimulation protocols for in-home collection of deep brain stimulation intracranial recordings.

Rural and coastal communities can experience more complex healthcare challenges linked to ageing populations, risk factors associated with a context of deprivation including high levels of smoking and substance abuse, high levels of obesity and low educational attainment. Moreover, there is a greater prevalence of disadvantaged groups who can struggle to access healthcare, which can lead to stark healthcare inequalities. But while Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) may have a key role to play in addressing such inequalities, given their role in both treatment and prevention of ill health unequal AHP workforce distribution is a key challenge to them doing so because it impacts on access to, and quality of, care these professionals are able to provide. Evidence suggests that chronic AHP shortages in rural and coastal areas are driven by difficulties in attracting and retaining staff., AHPs in rural and remote areas tend to have shorter lengths of employment and poor recruitment and retention rates are driven by rural location-related factors. Qualitative research with remote and rural communities in the UK highlights that recruiting and retaining health staff, including allied professionals, is harder because of location-specific factors like community integration, infrastructure, and social networks. Other studies have identified factors related to professional practice that may impact on AHP staffing in these regions, for example the potential for accelerated professional growth but also for increased stress and professional isolation. While there is some conceptual and qualitative agreement that location-related factors negatively affect AHP workforce sustainability, the implications for AHP workforce policy and practice delivery are unclear. Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) constitute the third-largest workforce in the National Health Service (NHS) with 152,000 AHPs across all healthcare settings. These degree-level educated autonomous practitioners include fourteen professions (art therapists, dietitians, drama therapists, music therapists, occupational therapists, operating department practitioners, orthoptists, osteopaths, paramedics, physiotherapists, prosthetists and orthotists, podiatrists, radiographers, speech and language therapists) and their primary aim is the improvement of health and wellbeing to maximise the potential for individuals to live full and active lives. Currently, the NHS workforce as a whole is more engaged in responding to health care needs than on the prevention of ill health, but the UK government has expressed the future ambition to shift focus upstream, by investing more in prevention and early intervention. This has implications for AHPs, given their potential to contribute significantly to population wellbeing and to the embedding of illness prevention and early detection strategies.