Research and Development Bulletin - October 2019
I want to start this bulletin by saying how encouraged I have been to hear the word “research” in so many conversations over the last few months. Ensuring research is part of the culture of the NHS is not only a strategic objective of the Department of Health & Social Care & NIHR but, as you know, it is also at the forefront of own strategy at UHDB.
AHP research
In my last bulletin, I noted that I was very happy to see that the three nominees for this year’s Making a Difference Research & Innovation Award were all from our very research-active AHPs and how difficult it would be to choose between them. So, I’d like to pass on my congratulations to Marcus Bateman, Upper Limb Consultant Physiotherapist, the winner of this award! Marcus is the Principal Investigator for a number of NIHR Portfolio-adopted musculoskeletal studies at UHDB and is a fantastic role model for aspiring AHP researchers.
We are not the only University Hospital that is so passionate about the contribution AHPs make, not only to clinical practice (I love the display on the main corridor at RDH by the way!), as I discovered on a recent trip to the University of Tasmania. I was invited by a very research-active advanced podiatrist to speak at one of their evening seminars on the role of AHP research in my own field of Diabetic Foot Disease. As I was in Australia anyway for a couple of weeks, it was too good an opportunity to miss. There I met Dr Tania Winzenberg, Professor in Chronic Disease Management and founder of a network of Allied Health Professionals interested in research (PARTNER), a GP by background, and Dr Elaine Hart, Clinical Lecturer and Manager of the Allied Health Strategy and Research Unit, Tasmanian Health Services. I thoroughly enjoyed discussing with them strategy to support AHP research. Watch this space for future developments!
Oncology and Haematology Research at UHDB
I took the opportunity to go along with Michael Agyemang, Clinical Trial Nurse Manager, to a team meeting with the clinical trials nurses/practitioners who work on the oncology & haematology trials. I sometimes struggle to meet with the delivery teams as often as I would like but I had a brief half an hour between other commitments and seized the moment. They do a great job with patient recruitment in what could be considered a difficult field, and so I wanted to share their success in making UHDB the joint-second highest recruiting site for the AML18 trial (Acute Myeloid Leukaemia) since the last amendment was implemented.
Pump priming grant scheme
Thank you to all of you who submitted an application to the latest round of the Research Pump-Priming Scheme. We received 12 applications which are now being reviewed, including a thorough literature review for each application, conducted by our superb library services colleagues, who were led on this piece of work by Beth Rawson, Deputy Library & Knowledge Service Manager. I can’t wait to see the applications myself, and hope to give you some good news by the end of November.
Roles and responsibilities
As you know, I am a user of the R&D processes and services, as well as the clinical director, and have to liaise with the Governance Team for study set up and all the form-filling that seems to go along with that. Anyone who has filled in one of those national, multiple-paged, joint research ethics/HRA online forms will wonder why so much information is needed. Once you have done it once, however, you will realise the benefit of a national approval system, and if you’ve ever had to design a single form for all eventualities, you will appreciate the problem. Spare a thought for the volunteers who sit on research ethics committees, many of whom are “lay members’ who may have to read up to 10 of these applications every month.
One of the questions on the form is how the researcher plans to disseminate the results of the study. Many of you will be aware of the campaign by AllTrials www.alltrials.net to ensure transparency of research and that all study results are published, whether positive or negative. This responsibility lies with the Chief Investigator (CI) but, as a Trust, we are required to chase any CIs to ensure publication within the stipulated time frames. As a result, I’m afraid there’s yet another form that has appeared in my inbox as I embark on my latest study in which my roles (including transparency) are laid out for me to agree to. I hope you all realise the importance of ensuring that we don’t take our patients’ goodwill for granted by not publishing the study outcomes in a timely manner and also by providing the outcomes of the study and feedback to the patient participants in accessible formats.
Professor Fran Game
Clinical Director of Research & Development