Research and Development Bulletin - August 2019
By way of introduction, I have been a Consultant Diabetologist in Derby for nine years, having previously been a consultant Diabetologist at Nottingham University Hospitals for 11 years. I have been active in research for most of my career and published my first paper as a Senior House Officer – which roughly translates as an F2.
I was a member of one of the national research ethics committees for over 14 years, chairing it for the last four. I took up the role to better understand all of the laws and regulatory requirements of NHS research, so I would thoroughly recommend sitting on a committee to anyone research-active or wanting to become research-active.
So why do it?
Research of the past has given us the advances that we enjoy today but an NHS organisation that is active in day to day clinical research may have additional benefits for our patients. For example, this recently published study shows a correlation between NHS Trusts' clinical trial activity and both mortality rates and Care Quality Commission ratings. It’s important to note that this is not an isolated study.
CQC
As you know, UHDB was recently inspected by the CQC and was awarded an overall ‘Good’ rating, which is an achievement that we can all be very proud of. You may be unaware though that, for the first time, the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) this year persuaded the CQC to include key research-related questions in its inspection framework for the Trustwide ‘Well-Led’ category.
The word “research” was used on 14 occasions in our full CQC report, which is not a huge increase on the word count from previous inspections but is, at least, moving in the correct direction. It was disappointing to me though that this did not reflect the significant increase in the number of patients that UHDB recruits to Clinical Research Network (CRN) supported portfolio studies, which was 4,900 in the last financial year, compared 3,320 patients in 2015-2016.
D-BARN
Equally, it was disappointing to me that we did not manage to convey the Trust’s support for AHP-led research, and the now well established, Derby and Burton AHP Research Network (D-BARN), which is ably chaired by Ben Smith, who has recently completed an NIHR-funded PhD programme. D-BARN offers peer support to any AHP wishing to become research-active or increase his/her research experience.
Cathy Johnson, Consultant Nurse in Renal Medicine, was one of the founder members of this group, and was recently awarded a prestigious place onto the NIHR 70@70 Leadership Programme. The programme is for senior nurse and midwife clinical leaders, with experience of building a research-led environment for patients, and with a record of developing existing practice and contributing to a research-rich environment. We were thrilled to see Cathy recognised in this way and we hope that her success will spur on others to think about research in their everyday clinical practice.
Celebrating research success
While we’re on the subject of celebrating our successful researchers, I was delighted to hear that the annual Making a Difference Awards include a ‘Research’ category for the first time. You can complete your entry form in this category here – I really look forward to celebrating what we all do to improve patient care.
Engineering for Better Health
This week, UHDB hosted medical engineers from our surrounding universities, to meet with clinicians from our Trust. The brainchild of Teresa Grieve, our Assistant Director of R&D, this is now our third event, with the first two helping us develop rewarding research relationships, successful grant applications, and even patents.
It is an event that always makes me feel incredibly intellectually inferior, as materials I never knew existed, processes I couldn’t even imagine, and details of physics that blow my mind, are paraded before me by people for whom it is everyday work! What always impresses me even more is their “can do” attitude. They seem to have a potential solution for any clinical problem that we, as clinicians, have struggled with for many years, whether that be widgets, gadgets, analysis of big data, or the tiniest of clinical change at tissue level. I always come away from these events buzzing with ideas of potential collaborative projects that could help our patients.
And finally
I’ve often read about the link between successful scientists and their musical abilities.
Einstein apparently played the violin and piano, Borodin was also a chemist, Brian May was studying for a PhD in Astrophysics when his work with Queen became too time consuming, and then there is of course Professor Brian Cox, Professor of Particle Physics and former keyboard player with D:Ream.
What I can’t find out though – despite an extensive literature search – is whether this is cause and effect, or merely association. So many questions remain unanswered; is there an intervention we can apply? At what point in a career is it optimum to start music training? Does the intervention need to be continuous, or can it stop at any time?
I considered asking the team in our Derby Clinical Trials Support Unit (DTSU) to help me design an appropriate study and look at grant funding, but as I’m sure Sarah Skirrow, the CTSU QA Manage, would assess this as a low risk intervention, I think I might just head off and polish my triangle now!
Professor Fran Game
Clinical Director of Research & Development