COVID-19 genetics trial a success at North Mid
Knowing when to approach patients, and building relationships with them and their families, was key to successful recruitment to the GenOMICC trial at North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust.
The NIHR-supported study, the world’s largest study of the genetics of critical COVID-19, has revealed details about some of the biological mechanisms behind the severe form of the disease.
Involving more than 57,000 people in the UK, the trial has discovered 16 new genetic variants associated with severe COVID-19, including some related to blood clotting, immune response and intensity of inflammation.
At North Middlesex, research nurse Dhana Bakthavatsalam was one of the driving forces behind strong recruitment to the trial, with the trust recruiting more than 332 patients to it.
Dhana, who has a background in intensive care nursing since 1999, said: “I felt it was key to know when to make the approach because a number of these patients were very ill when they were recruited to the trial, so it was important to work out when to approach families about consent.”
Dhana has been an Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre (ICNARC) nurse since 2015. ICNARC designs and conducts high quality audit and research to improve care and outcomes of critically ill patients, so conducting rigorous research in that setting was something Dhana was well used to.
“My background very was helpful,” she explained. “I had to put a skill of knowing how to have conversations around taking part with families to good use.
“We started the study in our unit in the beginning of February 2020 and recruited over first patient on 13 February 2020, and our recruitment has always been strong for this trial.”
In the study, researchers from the GenOMICC consortium – a global collaboration to study genetics in critical illness – led by University of Edinburgh in partnership with Genomics England, made discoveries by sequencing the genomes of 7,491 patients from 224 intensive care units in the UK.
Their DNA was compared with 48,400 other people who had not had COVID-19, participants in Genomics England’s 100,000 Genomes Project and that of a further 1,630 people who had experienced mild cases of the disease.
Determining the whole genome sequence (an organism’s complete set of genetic instructions) for all participants in the study allowed the team to create a precise map and identify genetic variation linked to severity of COVID-19.
Dhana added: “I am proud that our trust managed to recruit so many patients. It will give researchers a guide as to how to treat this virus in future.”
