More than 80 delegates attended our first ever Trust research event #BePartOfResearch this week. It was a day packed full of inspiring talks from our nursing and medical staff who are involved in offering patients a chance to participate and benefit from research

The day began with a welcome from Owen followed by a keynote presentation from Dr Jonathan Sheffield, CEO of the National Institute for Health Research, who talked about the UK advancements made in health research over the last 10 years, its impact on patient care and increasing evidence-based practice. He congratulated and thanked the Trust for its contribution to research.

Here, our Research and Innovation Lead, Asifa Ali tells more about what was covered on the day:

Prof Joffe talked about the cancer trials the Trust has been offering patients for over 15 years and the hope that this gives many sick patients. Dr Joffe was congratulated for running over 60 commercial trials during his time at the Trust. Mr Arin Saha (Surgeon) and Sam Mellor (Research Nurse) showcased the strides made in surgical research over that last 8 months, having the 2nd highest recruitment in Yorkshire already. Mr Saha said ‘the research team are amazing, without them we could not do this. Research is not as daunting when you have great team behind you’ and he encouraged others to take up research.

Dr Anand (Stroke Consultant) talked about the challenges in delivering research within stroke due to the very nature of the illness but he was able to demonstrate the impact the Trust stroke team had made having recruited more than 400 patients into 34 studies over the last five years. Some of these studies have changed national and international practice for treatment of stroke patients.

Dr Farazmand (GUM Consultant) and her team shared their research journey explaining that for hard to reach groups research is perhaps even more challenging – but they have participated in seven studies and recruited over 280 participants. Maneh described the importance of having a whole team approach to delivering research and Amanda Kearsley-Clarkson, Sexual Health Adviser said she never thought research could be part of her role but can now see that it is and should be part of everyone’s role.

There were presentations from external sponsors from industry who talked about taking business to NHS sites with a good infrastructure and highlighted that the Trust would be in a strong position to get more involved.

Dorothy Lang shared her journey as our Patient Research Champion and spoke passionately about giving patients an opportunity to take part in research and that patients value this.

Asifa shared her thanks to all colleagues and the clinical services that help the department deliver research, saying "there are so many of our services that work behind the scenes, they are our unsung heroes of research, without them we would not be as good as we are".

Tracy Wood, research nurse manager launched the Trusts Research Champions and asked colleagues to put themselves forward for these roles which would be help increase awareness and provide greater connectivity with the Trusts research activity. If interested contact r&d@cht.nhs.uk