The Clinical Research Podcast

Ask most people who they are, and they'll talk about their job, their likes and dislikes, their appearance. But there's another way of defining your identity - by the groups of people you mix with. We're a social species and who we choose to be with affects how we see the world, and ourselves. It can be a vital part of mental health. That's why occupational therapist and researcher Emilia Deakin c...

Clinical research is very much about collaboration, which means it can often also be very much about lots of organisations, with lots of initials. We try not to burrow too deeply into that particular rabbit hole unless we really have to, but for this episode - we really have to. Rather than people or particular studies, It's about plans for the future of clinical research in Nottingham, which mean...

Increasingly clinical research is being led by a broader range of clinical professionals - but there is more to do to encourage physiotherapists, healthcare scientists and every profession to make research part of their careers. In this episode Vicky Booth, a physiotherapist from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust explains to Matt Hurst of the Research & Innovation department how workin...

John Sweeney is a cleaner working at Nottingham City Hospital who was nominated for an award by the Respiratory Research Team for his part in supporting them on a number of COVID-19 research studies in 2020.  But in turns out that not only is John a genuine NHS hero, he also has a pretty inspirational story about how he came to be working at the Hospital at all. He tells his remarkable life s...

Our research hero this time is one of the people who helps set up studies in Nottingham, research facilitator Irfan Aslam.  Later in the pandemic, he took on co-ordinating the Virus Watch study in Nottingham, which gave one of the early hints of just how important asymptomatic infection was going to be, but as he told Andrew Bennett - at the beginning, his job switched from working on a range...

Staff, patients, and just about anyone else who wants to, at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust will be wearing red today (18 June 2021). They're joining thousands of people across the world showing their support for the huge international research effort which brought us vaccines and treatment for covid-19so quickly. It's the second year that June 18th has been marked as Red4Research day,...

This week is Diabetes Week so I've been speaking to Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust hepatologist Professor Guru Aithal, whose research includes investigating fatty liver disease. Research is showing that diabetes and fatty liver disease have the kind of relationship where if they were in the same class at school, you'd separate them to stop them egging each other on. We talked about how...

In the latest of our interviews with winners of our Research Heroes awards, Andrew Bennett talks to clinical research manager Lucy Ryan, who works on the DREEAM team at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. DREEAM is the Department of Research and Education in emergency and acute medicine at the hospital, and Lucy and her team were heavily involved with covid patients, especially collecting d...

Glaucoma is when the optic nerve is damaged, generally by high pressure in the eye, and it's treated by lowering that pressure to minimise any further damage. This episode looks at research into advanced glaucoma treatment, and a study called TAGS (the Treatment of Advanced Glaucoma Study). It's led by Professor Anthony King, Consultant Ophthalmologist at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust...

Last year, research practitioner Georgia Melia had to learn new skills on her feet as she was moved to the lab from patient wards, as part of our work on Covid-19 research. Andrew Bennett spoke to her about big change in her working life. This Podcast is brought to you by the Research & Innovation team at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust - www.nuh.nhs.uk/research . Follow us on @Resea...

Lindsay Crate is a nurse by background, but now her role is about making sure that studies run smoothly - that  there are enough staff, they're properly trained, they understand research protocols and that we're recruiting enough patients. Amongst other things. She's a clinical research manager. Normally, planning is the key to all this - but when Covid-19 hit, planning joined the long list o...

Known as 'The Blood God' for his unerring ability to get a sample from even the most elusive of veins, clinical research practitioner Kebba Konteh puts his skill down to his own fear of needles - he knows how to put patients at ease. Now on the Core COVID-19 Research Team at the NIHR Clinical Research Facility at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, he's worked at NUH for nearly 20 years.&nb...

It's a given - now - that good study design means a process of involving patients at every step, from the big questions like 'what shall we investigate', to the how and where and when, to the important details like the exact words in patient information leaflets and how people are welcomed when they arrive. And there's a process to the process - or at least there was till Covid hit, and raised som...

We all know about Long Covid symptoms like breathlessness and prolonged fatigue, but there are also signs that it can effect the hearing, tinnitus, and balance. The CHEAR (COVID and Hearing, otherwise known as ‘Measuring Hearing, Tinnitus and Balance following COVID-19’) Study will involve around 100 patients living in the East Midlands region. National Institute for Health Research Nottingham Bio...

Jesse is is a clinical research practitioner at the NIHR Nottingham Clinical Research Facility. He was initially drawn to lab work because he liked being able to get to a neat clean answer - but then Covid-19 hit and life stopped being neat and mathematical, and he's discovered that meeting patients, and training colleagues can be just as satisfying. Our COVID-19 Research Heroes were designed to r...

Research is everywhere in Nottingham University Hospitals - not just on the wards but down corridors in that block on that floor we just have no reason to know anything about. And nobody has the time to go wandering round randomly on the offchance they'll find something they didn't know they were looking for. So how do you find out what you don't know that you didn't know? One way is the learning...

The researchers at Nottingham University Hospitals couldn't do what they do without the thousands of other people who sometimes don't get the credit they're due. Most drug treatments start off in the laboratory but before they're allowed to be used by the NHS, they're trialled in the wild - that is on real patients in real life. And like everything over the last year with Covid 19 that's happened...

Scientists based in Nottingham research teams at Nottingham University Hospitals have recruited more than 600 patients into RECOVERY, the world's biggest clinical trial in hospitalised patients with COVID-19. As a result, they've contributed to the UK his efforts to find effective life saving treatments. However, the recovery trial has thrown up a number of questions from our clinical staff who we...

There's no obvious correlation between how seriously Covid affects a patient initially, and its longer term effects. One of our research programmes is trying to uncover why some people recover fully and quickly, and why others may be affected far longer.  Called NoRCoRP - for Nottingham Recovery from Covid Research Platform - it was set up by Professor Ian Hall, the director of Nottingham Bio...