National Institute for Health and Care Research

Rising numbers of young people have depression. It can affect their relationships with family and friends, disrupt their school lives and interfere with sleep. Services are struggling to meet their needs and many young people are waiting months to access the talking therapies that could help them. Sometimes, doctors might consider prescribing antidepressant medicines. Research supports the use of...

Episode 4 of the NIHR podcast series discussing the big research challenges facing healthcare, hosted by Dr Sanjay Ramakrishnan, Research Fellow in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Oxford . Every week, UK clinicians with experience of research discuss the tough questions about research. In this final episode,  Sanjay is joined by research optometrist Laura Taylor, ophthalmology registrar...

Episode 3 of the NIHR podcast series discussing the big research challenges facing healthcare, hosted by Dr Sanjay Ramakrishnan, Research Fellow in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Oxford . Every week, UK clinicians with experience of research discuss the tough questions about research. In this episode,  Sanjay is joined by ophthalmology registrar Dr. Mital Shah,  Sofia Cerdeira MD PhD, c...

Episode 2 of the NIHR podcast series discussing the big research challenges facing healthcare, hosted by Dr Sanjay Ramakrishnan, Research Fellow in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Oxford . Every week, UK clinicians with experience of research discuss the tough questions about research. In this episode,  Sanjay is joined by research optometrist Laura Taylor,  Sofia Cerdeira MD PhD, clinic...

Episode 1 of a new NIHR series discussing the big research challenges facing healthcare, hosted by Dr Sanjay Ramakrishnan, Research Fellow in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Oxford . Every week, UK clinicians with experience of research will be asking the tough questions about research. In this episode,  Sanjay is joined by research optometrist Laura Taylor, ophthalmology registrar Dr. M...

We speak to Professor Jonathan Wadsley, the NIHR Specialty Lead for Cancer Radiotherapy and Imaging Research about risk factors for cancer, what research has found so far, why some cancers are more challenging to research than others and what's next for cancer research. Visit show notes and transcript .

People living with dementia need care that promotes continence, manages continence problems as they arise, and always preserves their dignity. Recent NIHR research has explored the impact of continence problems on people living with dementia, their carers and the professionals looking after them. The research suggests changes that would help ensure that people receive the high quality, personalise...

Dementia is one of the main causes of death in the UK and it regularly makes the headlines when high profile people choose to share their diagnosis or when there are new findings of possible causes.  In this episode, we talk to  Professor John O’Brien who is the NIHR Speciality Lead for Dementia and Professor of Old Age Psychiatry. We explore why dementia rates are increasing, what research has fo...

This podcast explores aphasia which is a language and communication disorder usually caused by damage to the left side of the brain, most commonly after a stroke.  Speech and language therapists work with patients and their carers to help them improve their speech and use alternative ways of communicating. In this episode, we talk to Dr Rebecca Palmer about a research study called Big CACTUS and w...

To mark International Nurses Day 2022 we talk with NIHR Associate Director of Nursing and Midwifery, Lead Matron at the NIHR Clinical Research Facility in Southampton and former president of the International Association of Clinical Research Nurses (IACRN), Jennifer Allison. Jennifer discusses how she got into research, the IACRN's International Nurses Day celebrations and promoting research...

Senior nurse at the James Paget University Hospitals, NHS Foundation Trust and NIHR 70@70 Senior Research Leader alumni, Claire Whitehouse discusses her journey into research, how COVID impacted international collaboration and the ground-breaking UK and Ireland nursing and midwifery census.  The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily re...

Joining Dr Neil Hill and Reuben Lewis in this episode is Siân Rilstone - a Research Dietician at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust . Siân discusses the research projects she is working on, exploring how people living with diabetes can exercise safely. Siân also shares her thoughts on the importance of focussing on both diet and exercise to manage diabetes effectively, and the most impactful ty...

Denis Collen joins Dr Neil Hill and Reuben Lewis in this episode, sharing his experience of living with diabetes since his diagnosis in 2010. Denis is heavily involved in patient advocacy work. Among the many initiatives, he has worked on is a campaign to ensure all parks in Harrow, London, have an outdoor gym. He is also a strong advocate for research, talking about his role as a volunteer and wh...

Tara Lamont, Senior Scientific Advisor for HSDR, talks to Dr Nick Watts, Chief Sustainability Officer for NHS England and Professor Mahmood Bhutta, Consultant ENT Surgeon, about what greening the NHS and social care means, and what the research agenda is.  The NIHR Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) Programme is accepting stage one applications to a funding opportunity supporting the...

Digital technology is making it easier for people living with diabetes to self-manage their condition. This episode explores the cutting-edge research that has led to the advancement of these technologies, and what the future holds. Joining Dr Neil Hill and Reuben Lewis is Professor Nick Oliver - a Diabetes Consultant at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust , and Professor of Human Metabolism at...

Professor Tariq Iqbal talks to Dr Tariq Ahmad about CLARITY IBD, the most important gastroenterology study undertaken during the recent COVID pandemic. In this episode they discuss how this pragmatic trial adopted an agile approach to rapidly answer a key question: Do common immunosuppressants used to treat Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) reduce the effectiveness of COVID19 vaccines? They also ex...

Discover the links between obesity and diabetes, and how research is helping to inform treatments and lifestyle choices for people living with diabetes. Also, find out what the future of diabetes research looks like and how to get involved. Joining Dr Neil Hill and Reuben Lewis in this episode is Dr Saira Hameed - a Consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust...

In the first episode, Dr Neil Hill and Reuben Lewis go back to basics - answering the question, 'what is medical research?' Find out how trials are designed - how funding works, how volunteers are protected and what it's like to take part. Reuben shares his own personal experience of volunteering. And Dr Hill talks about the research he has worked on, including monitoring the glucos...

Collaboration and clinical research are critical in combating the global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threat.  The challenges are many but with growing recognition of this world-wide issue comes hope. In this podcast you will hear how the global research community is coming together to tackle the problem on multiple fronts by taking a much broader view on AMR.  Antibiotic stewardship, vaccines,...

This episode of the NIHR podcast asks how we can reduce the toll of loneliness in older adults. The pandemic threw a spotlight on loneliness and social distancing caused heartache for so many. But it made little difference to the day to day lives of some older people. They were already isolated and lonely. The podcast is hosted by Helen Saul, Editor in Chief of the NIHR Evidence website who will b...

This episode of the NIHR podcast focuses on community engagement and involvement (CEI) in global health research and the 'Leave No One Behind' agenda. The podcast is hosted by Erica Nelson, a Post-Doctoral Research Officer at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). Erica is in conversation with invited experts on how they undertake CEI and what it means to Leave No One Behind in prac...

View the accessible transcript of this podcast Professor Yan Yiannakou talks to Professor Allan Gaw about Relieve IBS-D which was one of the one of the UK’s first fully virtual, intervention trials. Professor Yiannakou recounts why the trial transitioned from a site-based trial to a virtual version, pointing to geographical exclusion as the biggest barrier to recruitment, even with 28 sites open a...

View the accessible transcript of this podcast MHRA's Kirsty Wydenbach talks to Professor Allan Gaw about the different types of complex, innovative design trials (CID) which became more commonplace during the pandemic. She provides some practical advice for researchers and sponsors designing such trials and explains how they need to work with the MHRA to make their study happen. She highligh...

 View the accessible transcript of this podcast Professor Pamela Kearns talks to Professor Allan Gaw about CATAYLST, a phase 2 platform trial which was designed to rapidly identify potential COVID19 treatments during the pandemic. Professor Kearns explains how the adaptive design of the trial and the Bayesian statistical approach were crucial to quickly acquire go/no go decisions on which drugs sh...

View the accessible transcript of this podcast Dr Camille Carroll talks to Professor Allan Gaw about harnessing the power of the technology in clinical trials. She describes some of the advangages of using innovative digital technologies by highlighting some of the disadvantages and challenges faced in using traditional trial assessment methods. Zooming in on wearable sensor technologies, Dr Carro...