Nearly 80,000 take part in research in North Thames in 2018/19
Two NHS trusts from the North Thames region are amongst the top 10 most research-active trusts in England, according to new figures released today by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
University College London Hospitals NHS Trust and Barts Health NHS Trust are placed ninth and tenth respectively in the NIHR Research Activity League Table, which ranks NHS trusts across England by the number of studies they support and the number of research participants they recruit. The NIHR is England’s largest funder of health and social care research.
Barts Health has, for the sixth year in a row, topped the table nationally for number of commercial studies, supporting 153 studies in 2018/19.
Dr Alistair Chesser, Group Chief Medical Officer at Barts Health, said: "I am very excited by the news from the NIHR that, for the sixth year running, Barts Health is the leading NHS Trust in Britain for commercial research studies. This announcement from the NIHR is terrific news our patients and a real boost to researchers here. Our clinical research is pushing boundaries and expanding treatment options for patients in all aspects of clinical care and we have a particular focus on life sciences through our Life Sciences Initiative. This is an exciting time for clinical research at Barts Health and I am looking forward to seeing how our research continues to progress our mission to transform the face of healthcare in East London.”
Across the Clinical Research Network North Thames region in 2018/19, NHS trusts recruited 67,353 participants to research studies, a rise of more than 8,000 on the previous year.
Clinical Commissioning Groups across the North Thames region recruited 11,231 participants to studies in 2018/19, bringing the total recruitment figure across NHS trusts and Clinical Commissioning Groups to 78,584.
University College London Hospitals NHS Trust (UCLH) also fared well in the League Table this year, recruiting 14,620 participants and supporting 448 studies coming ninth overall.
Professor Bryan Williams, Director of Research at UCLH, said: “We are pleased to be recognised as one of the top research hospitals in key measures of research activity, and to have increased the number of research studies and study participants at UCLH compared with last year. We are particularly proud of the cutting edge research we do at UCLH which drives advances in patient care – particularly as our research portfolio has shifted to more early phase trials of cutting edge new treatments for patients with the most life threatening diseases, delivered to patients for the first time in the NHS and sometimes the world, which do not include large numbers of patients but are crucial to the development of new life saving treatments.”
Dr Paula Aubrey, Chief Operating Officer of Clinical Research Network North Thames, paid tribute to researchers across the region who helped to recruit study participants.
She said: “These impressive statistics are a testament to researchers across North Thames, who have worked incredibly hard to give nearly 80,000 participants access to potential new treatments.
“It is a fantastic example of collaboration across the NHS. I offer my profound thanks, on behalf of the network, to everyone for their hard work.”
Across England, there were 870,250 research participants in 2018/19.
To see how your trust fared in the League Table, go to www.nihr.ac.uk/nihrleaguetable
