Plymouth GP highly commended for bringing research opportunities to patients
A young city GP has been ‘highly commended’ at a prestigious awards ceremony for the work he has done to bring clinical research opportunities to his patients at their local practices.
Dr Tim Bray, Research Lead GP at Beacon Medical Group, was highly commended in the First5 category at the Royal College of General Practitioners Research Awards, run in partnership with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) - the research arm of the NHS.
The awards, which were presented during the College's annual conference on October 14 in Liverpool by College president, Dr Terry Kemple, recognise research active NHS GPs and general practices that are demonstrating excellence and innovation in delivering NIHR research. The First5 award recognises GPs in the first five years of their career who demonstrate an emerging interest and experience in delivering NIHR research within a primary care setting.
Beacon Medical Group, which serves 40,000 patients across five sites, is currently involved in three clinical research studies in areas including arthritis, gastroenterology and cardiovascular conditions.
Dr Bray said: “It really is an honour to be Highly Commended in these awards - not just for me, but the whole Beacon team who work extremely hard to give our patients the opportunity to take part in research studies.
“Research is a core function of the NHS and integral to continuing to advance treatments and care for patients. Beacon has decided to offer research opportunities to its patients because, put simply, evidence shows that patients cared for in a research-active organisation have better outcomes.”
Applicants were required to outline their contribution to NIHR Clinical Research Network Portfolio studies with particular weight being attached to the range and number of patients in NIHR Clinical Research Network studies; how patients have been engaged and informed of new opportunities to participate in clinical research; their contribution and innovative methods used in the successful delivery of clinical research studies.
Lisa Gibbons, Primary Care Research Lead in the South West, said: “This is a fantastic achievement and well-deserved. We are delighted that Tim is now helping the network enthuse other new GPs and trainees to get involved in research.”
Since its inception in 2006, the NIHR has significantly increased the scale of clinical research in the NHS, particularly through the NIHR Clinical Research Network. The enthusiastic engagement of NHS clinicians is an essential condition for sustaining and building on this success; particularly given the many competing demands on clinician time and resources.
As part of the application process the applicants had to set out what activities they planned to carry out in the future to improve research delivery.
