PRC: Newcastle marks one year since industry launch
In November 2020 the NIHR launched five Patient Recruitment Centres to enable late phase commercial clinical research to be delivered in the NHS and make it easier for people to take part in studies.
Since the industry launch, PRC: Newcastle in partnership with Enteromed Ltd, has successfully delivered rapid recruitment to one of the first fully virtual interventional clinical trials to be conducted in England, RELIEVE IBS-D. This virtual trial recruited twice as fast as 27 other sites using traditional patient recruitment approaches.
The team has also supported 19,818 sign ups to Research+ME, a local registry for volunteers aged 18 years and over to hear about opportunities for taking part in research in Newcastle upon Tyne through the PRC.
Since PRC: Newcastle first opened in March 2020, the team has delivered six studies and recruited 186 participants, with another two studies due to open imminently. The studies recruiting now, and due to open, cover a broad range of common, chronic conditions including headaches, COPD and asthma, diabetes, hypertension and obesity.
PRC: Newcastle is a finalist in the Bright Ideas in Health awards and has also been nominated in the HSJ Value Awards and PharmaField Awards for the RELIEVE IBS-D study.
Professor Yan Yiannakou, Clinical Director, PRC: Newcastle said: “I am incredibly proud of all of the team here at the PRC. It’s been a very rewarding first year and we are leading the way in new ways of delivering research and supporting research into common chronic conditions for people in the North East and beyond.
“I’d like to thank every participant who has taken part in research here at the PRC. We hope the RELIEVE IBS-D trial is the first step in making it easier for people to take part in clinical studies, no matter where they live.”
You can find out more about the PRCs by watching this short animation: Explaining the NIHR national Patient Recruitment Centres. View an accessible transcript for the 'Explaining the NIHR national Patient Recruitment Centres (PRCs)' animation.
The PRCs are managed by and funded through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), and run locally by NHS trusts. They are the first NIHR-funded research infrastructure wholly dedicated to delivering commercial research. PRC: Newcastle is proudly hosted by The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
