South West patients first to take part in a global study
Two patients from Taunton’s Musgrove Park Hospital are the first to be recruited into a global study looking at dosing strategies for a new drug used to treat Crohn’s Disease.
Emma Wesley, consultant gastroenterologist at Musgrove Park Hospital, run by Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, heads up research in the department. “It’s amazing to have not only enrolled the first patient globally into this study, but also the second patient. It really has created quite a stir.”
The study, called STARDUST, is looking at different dosing strategies for a NICE-approved drug used in people with the debilitating inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease. It is the first commercial study the gastroenterology team at Musgrove Park has recruited to.
“We’ve only recently started doing commercial studies,” said Emma. “This particular study opened in April 2017 and we have already hit our target and now have other commercial studies open for recruitment.
“I wanted to do more research in the department because I felt it would be a good thing to be able to offer our patients but also, as clinicians, being involved in research helps to keep us up to date. In the future we hope to be able to offer drugs to our patients that wouldn’t otherwise be available to them other than via a clinical trial, particularly for those people for whom there aren’t any other options.”
Emma said the recent successes of the department are not solely down to her, but the whole team. “I’m really lucky that I work with a fantastic team,” said Emma. “We all work well together which has been the key to our success.”
