International Clinical Trials Day 2020: Recruiting patients to vital COVID-19 studies
This International Clinical Trials Day 2020 (Wednesday 20th May) we want to recognise our research team, who have been leading the way and working hard to make sure that patients are recruited to vital research trials across the Trust.
Along with Queen Mary University of London, our hospitals have begun a new programme of COVID-19 research. COVID-19 patients are being recruited into clinical trials to understand why some people become severely affected by the disease, and to investigate interventions to see if they can help more patients survive.
As of 19 May 2020, nearly 1600 participants had been recruited to 28 COVID-19 studies, including patients and healthcare workers. Barts Health is performing particularly well recruiting patients to studies deemed to be of Urgent Public Health status:
|
The PRIEST Study: Pandemic Respiratory Infection Emergency System Triage |
337 |
|
Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy (RECOVERY) |
126 |
|
Genetics of susceptibility and mortality in critical care (GenOMICC) |
122 |
Participation in COVID-19 research is vital to allow us to find out as much about the disease as we can, as soon as possible. Research allows us to answer questions about COVID-19, by gathering information about the disease we can find ways of diagnosing it faster, and establish treatments.
To help with recruitment, our researchers developed a co-enrolment framework to support recruitment of patients to more than one COVID-19 research study. This model is designed to be a one-step approach to the recruiting the patient, rather than a series of people asking them about different studies. The Health Research Authority is set to roll out this document set for use across England and Wales.
The team have also produced two short films to support the enrolment of patients into COVID-19 studies. The films clearly explain what is involved in interventional and observational clinical trials and has been made available in several languages. The engagement has been very positive on the Barts Health website, with over 600 video views in first week. The National Institute of Health Research have made these videos available to the wider public on the Be Part of Research website, which will hopefully increase applicant and participant numbers.
Prof Chloe Orkin, clinical research lead for COVID 19 said: “It is only through research that we will move beyond the pandemic. We have made a very significant contribution to research into treatment and genetics of COVID-19."
Imogen Skene, COVID-19 research team leader at the Royal London Hospital said: “Being involved in COVID-19 research makes me feel proud to be able to contribute to finding out more about this disease, its potential treatments and hopefully a cure.”
Resources
To direct members of the public interested in learning more about COVID-19 research taking place our hospitals, plus ideas for how to support our research efforts, please go to the information page.
Research staff should visit the Joint Research Management Office website, for advice and updates on conducting research during the COVID-19 outbreak.