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News and updates from NIHR
Date: 24 November 2020
NIHR launches new National Patient Recruitment Centres for late phase commercial clinical research
The NIHR has launched five new National Patient Recruitment Centres (NPRCs) to enable more late phase commercial clinical research to be delivered within the NHS and make it easier for people to take part in studies.
Located at NHS hospital sites across England, the five regionally based NPRCs are funded through the NIHR and run locally by NHS trusts. They are the first NIHR-funded research infrastructure wholly dedicated to delivering commercial research. By making it quicker and easier for life science companies to deliver late-phase clinical research at scale and pace through the NHS, the centres will increase the number of commercial studies that can be delivered within the UK. To optimise the speed and consistency which commercial studies can be delivered through the NHS, each centre is equipped with purpose-designed facilities, clinical expertise and ready access to NHS support services including pharmacy, radiology, and pathology. Read more
New Restarting research page
We have a new page on NIHR Local ‘Restarting research’ which brings Restart news and case studies together but also categorises them by theme and tags them by specialty.
Information For Participants In Light Of News of other effective COVID-19 vaccines
We are pleased to share a Q&A document for sites to provide to COVID-19 vaccine trial participants regarding the Pfizer and Moderna interim results. This can be downloaded from the NHS COVID-19 vaccine research registry comms site for NIHR, trust and stakeholders, along a range of other helpful materials to promote the registry. Questions covered include ‘What does the news about other effective vaccines mean to people taking part in trials?’. Please would you share the document locally as appropriate so that it is available to COVID-19 vaccine trial participants.
NIHR-AoMRC Clinician Researchers Credential Framework
A programme of work has commenced to develop a formal clinician researcher credentialing framework and related academic qualifications for clinicians (who have not followed an academic training pathway) from all professional backgrounds and at any stage of their career to provide the skills and confidence needed to deliver and lead clinical research. This work is managed by Clinical Research Network Coordinating Centre (CRNCC) in partnership with Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AoMRC) in collaboration with NIHR Academy. For more information contact: ruth.wallbank@nihr.ac.uk, interim Programme Manager.
NIHR CRN COVID-19 Vaccine Trials Training
Additional resources have been added to the dedicated training area on NIHR Learn. https://nihrlearnvaccinematrix.netlify.app/. This includes the Vaccine Site Orientation course. The primary purpose of the course is to ensure there is widespread understanding across the research delivery workforce of the unique characteristics of vaccine study delivery, and as a result of this knowledge, that staff will feel enabled and well-equipped to successfully deliver these studies within their Trusts. For more information contact the Workforce Development Lead in the Local Clinical Research Network.
Announcement of the Nursing Times Award 2020 winner –
The Clinical Research Delivery team at Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust has won the 2020 Nursing Times award for Clinical Research Nursing.
The team demonstrated many innovative approaches including; the use of WhatsApp to network with over 40 clinicians to provide immediate responses to questions about patient recruitment, supporting novice investigators and staff redeployed to deliver urgent public health studies using a buddy system. They ensured governance continuity by rapid trial set-up, providing seven day cover, training over 50 staff, daily stand up meetings and scheduling staff across sites. As a small team they successfully recruited 250 patients to Covid-19 studies and to date the team has recruited over 250 patients into the RECOVERY study which has had a global impact. This was achieved through excellent collaboration with clinical colleagues while creating a supportive environment during the extraordinary challenges of the pandemic. Their engagement and dedication continues.
Announcing the winner, Dr Louise Wood, Director of Science, Research and Evidence at the Department of Health and Social Care, said:
“The judges were greatly impressed with the level of collaboration and achievement with limited resources. This group made research more accessible by demonstrating flexibility and resource utilisation within challenging and extraordinary times. Many congratulations!”
Dr Sharon Barrett, NIHR CRN Associate Director of Nursing and lead judge, said:
“Despite the challenging year, it was so important to find time to celebrate clinical research nurses and midwives. It is also important to recognise all the other entries for this category. The other judges and I were incredibly impressed with the many initiatives, training and collaborations described and we will go further to share some of these.”
The Clinical Research Nursing award is sponsored by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and was created to recognise the key contribution of the clinical research nursing workforce.
Digital accessibility modules available on NIHR Learn
We have developed a series of modules on NIHR Learn to help everyone learn about what you can do to make your digital content more accessible. This general guidance can be applied to a number of digital tools from websites and e-learning courses to presentations and documents.
You can access these free modules on NIHR Learn. We will announce more modules as they become available in the future.
https://learn.nihr.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=737
NIHR MOOCS (free online courses)
The National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network Coordinating Centre runs two MOOCs (free online courses) on Futurelearn:
- ‘What is health research?’
- ‘Improving Healthcare Through Clinical Research’.
You can join either of the MOOCs at any time or you can sign up and wait a couple of months to participate in the mentor supported discussions. Click the link to find out more https://sites.google.com/nihr.ac.uk/massive-open-online-courses/about?authuser=0
Please direct any questions/queries to nihrlearncommunities@nihr.ac.uk
Good Clinical Practice (GCP) Refresher Online (November 2020)
The GCP Refresher online course has been updated. The new three-module course covers recent updates and forthcoming changes, GCP hot topics and a module allowing learners to reflect on their own practice. The GCP hot topics covered in this update include the UK’s research response to COVID-19, complex innovative trial design, electronic systems, risk assessment and risk mitigation, outsourcing of trial activities and laboratory management and analysis of clinical trial samples.
A survey of people with Parkinson’s, their carers and loved ones has shown that the majority are still comfortable taking part in research