Harry
“Harry was well looked after, carefully monitored, and we felt supported by the staff every step of the way.”
Stephanie George and Lee Murdoch whose newborn son Harry took part in a study.
We are here to help you find out about health and social care research that is taking place across the UK.
“Harry was well looked after, carefully monitored, and we felt supported by the staff every step of the way.”
Stephanie George and Lee Murdoch whose newborn son Harry took part in a study.
“Unless we try things out we’d never get to know what would work”.
Stephen Burgess, rare cancer trial participant.
“Clinical research is vital to help make improvements for patients and the NHS”.
Irene Soulsby, cancer research participant.
We’ve rebuilt the UK Clinical Trials Gateway to make it easier to use. We will continue to improve our new ‘Be Part of Research’ site but we need your help. Feedback now.
In this video, Professor Allan Gaw talks about how we build our understanding of how research feeds into our healthcare system. "Your role is crucial because every treatment that is given, every tablet that is prescribed and every test that is performed, has to first be discovered and then evaluated before it can be used". Read more about the importance of research in modern healthcare.
The number of people benefitting from clinical research has reached record highs this year. In 2018/19 research was delivered at every NHS trust across the country and we’re making it even easier for people to take part. Read the full story.
Who better for researchers to work with from the very start, than people living with the condition? You’re missing out on a wealth of knowledge and expertise by not including and working alongside patients. Just because I have dementia doesn’t mean I’m not capable of advising researchers on project design. In this blog, Wendy Mitchell (author of Sunday Times Bestseller 'Somebody I Used to Know') talks about her involvement in research.
"Too much wheat and gluten in early stages of infancy raises risk of coeliac disease in children at risk of the condition," reports the Mail Online. Researchers looked at the diets of 6,605 children from Sweden, Finland, Germany and the US, all of whom had genetic variants that put them at higher risk of developing autoimmune conditions like coeliac disease, where the immune system starts to attack the body's own tissues.
Early research suggests that antiplatelet drugs, such as aspirin, can provide more benefit than harm if restarted at about 2 to 3 months after a brain bleed. The results seem to apply best to those patients with a good prognosis who survive with less disability. Antiplatelet drugs are of proven benefit to those with a high risk of vascular events; they reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes because they prevent platelets from clumping together. However, after a type of a stroke caused by a bleed into the brain, an intracerebral haemorrhage, continued use increases the risk of an early further bleed. This risk reduces over time. This has created a dilemma for doctors and patients concerning the balance of benefit and risk leading to uncertainty about if and when to restart these drugs. Now, a UK trial of 537 adults who were taking antiplatelet drugs before their intracerebral haemorrhage, has found no material difference in the risk of further bleeding or occlusive vascular event if stroke patients are restarted on the drugs when feasible. The results are encouraging and, when combined with the results of two ongoing trials, will help provide more certainty for those faced with this dilemma.
Virtual reality shows promise in helping to distract children from self-reported pain and anxiety during medical procedures. Younger children in particular may benefit from the intervention. This review of seventeen trials looked at virtual reality interventions tested in trials with children receiving treatment for burns, dental and tumour related health needs, and during needle insertion for intravenous access. Results suggested a marked impact on pain and anxiety of children from these immersive distractions, but research was of mixed quality and individual trials were small. Fear of medical interventions is a commonly recognised problem in children and can be very acute in younger children. Virtual reality as a distraction may offer a safe solution in counteracting this.