Project description:In 1999, 270,000 cases of cancer were registered in the United Kingdom, placing a large burden on the NHS. Cancer outcome data in 1999 suggested that UK survival rates were poorer than most other European countries. In the same year, a Department of Health review noted that clinical trials accrual was poor (<3.5% of incident cases) and hypothesised that increasing research activity might improve outcomes and reduce the variability of outcomes across England. Thus, the National Cancer Research Network (NCRN) was established to increase participation in cancer clinical research.The NCRN was established in 2001 to provide a robust infrastructure for cancer clinical research and improvements in patient care. Remit of NCRN is to coordinate, support and deliver cancer clinical research through the provision of research support staff across England. The NCRN works closely with similar networks in Scotland, Wales and the Northern Ireland. A key aim of NCRN is to improve the speed of research and this was also assessed by comparing the speed of study delivery of a subset of cancer studies opening before and after NCRN was established.Patient recruitment increased through NCRN, with almost 32,000 (12% of annual incident cases) cancer patients being recruited each year. Study delivery has improved, with more studies meeting the recruitment target - 74% compared with 39% before NCRN was established.The coordinated approach to cancer clinical research has demonstrated increased accrual, wide participation and successful trial delivery, which should lead to improved outcomes and care.
Project description:To determine the sources of founding for UK gastroenterology research papers and the relative impact of papers funded by different groups and of unfunded ones.UK gastroenterology papers from 1988-94 were selectively retrieved from the Science Citation Index by means of a specially constructed filter based on their title keywords and journal names. They were looked up in libraries to determine their funding sources and these, together with their numbers of authors, numbers of addresses, and research category (clinical/basic) were considered as input parameters to the research. Output parameters analysed were mean journal impact category, citation counts by papers, and the frequency of citation by a US patient.Gastroenterology papers comprise about 7% of all UK biomedical research and 46% of them have no acknowledged funding source. One quarter of the papers acknowledged government support, and a similar fraction a private, non-profit source; 11% were funded by the pharmaceutical industry. The papers acknowledging funding had significantly more impact than the others on all three measures. The citing patents had six times more UK inventors than the average for all US Patent and Trademark Office patents in the relevant classes and were mostly generic in application.The variation in impact of papers funded by different sources can mostly be explained by a simple model based on the input factors (numbers of funding bodies, numbers of authors, numbers of addresses, and research type). The national science base in gastroenterology is important for the underpinning of UK invented patents citing to it.
Project description:Biomedical Research Centres (BRCs) are partnerships between healthcare organisations and universities in England. Their mission is to generate novel treatments, technologies, diagnostics and other interventions that increase the country's international competitiveness, to rapidly translate these innovations into benefits for patients, and to improve efficiency and reduce waste in healthcare. As NIHR Oxford BRC (Oxford BRC) enters its third 5-year funding period, we seek to (1) apply the evidence base on how best to support the various partnerships in this large, multi-stakeholder research system and (2) research how these partnerships play out in a new, ambitious programme of translational research.Organisational case study, informed by the principles of action research. A cross-cutting theme, 'Partnerships for Health, Wealth and Innovation' has been established with multiple sub-themes (drug development, device development, business support and commercialisation, research methodology and statistics, health economics, bioethics, patient and public involvement and engagement, knowledge translation, and education and training) to support individual BRC research themes and generate cross-theme learning. The 'Partnerships' theme will support the BRC's goals by facilitating six types of partnership (with patients and citizens, clinical services, industry, across the NIHR infrastructure, across academic disciplines, and with policymakers and payers) through a range of engagement platforms and activities. We will develop a longitudinal progress narrative centred around exemplar case studies, and apply theoretical models from innovation studies (Triple Helix), sociology of science (Mode 2 knowledge production) and business studies (Value Co-creation). Data sources will be the empirical research studies within individual BRC research themes (who will apply separately for NHS ethics approval), plus documentary analysis and interviews and ethnography with research stakeholders. This study has received ethics clearance through the University of Oxford Central University Research Ethics Committee.We anticipate that this work will add significant value to Oxford BRC. We predict accelerated knowledge translation; closer alignment of the innovation process with patient priorities and the principles of responsible, ethical research; reduction in research waste; new knowledge about the governance and activities of multi-stakeholder research partnerships and the contexts in which they operate; and capacity-building that reflects the future needs of a rapidly-evolving health research system.
Project description:There have been immediate and profound impacts of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 on healthcare services worldwide with major consequences for non-COVID-19 related healthcare. Alongside efforts to reconfigure services and enable continued delivery of safe clinical care for patients with IBD, consideration must also be given to management of IBD research activity. In many centres there has been an effective shutdown of IBD clinical trial activity as research sites have switched focus to either COVID-19 related research or clinical care only. As a result, the early termination of trial programmes and loss of potentially effective therapeutic options for IBD, has become a real and worrying prospect. Moreover, in many countries research activity has become embedded into clinical care - with clinical trials often providing access to new therapies or strategies - which would otherwise not have been available in standard clinical pathways. This pandemic has significant implications for the design, conduct, analysis and reporting of clinical trials in IBD. In this Viewpoint, we share our experiences from a clinical and academic perspective in the United Kingdom, highlighting the early challenges encountered and consider implications for patients and staff at research sites, sponsors, research ethics committees, funders and regulators. We also offer potential solutions both for now and for when we enter a recovery phase from the pandemic.
Project description:BACKGROUND:The National Neonatal Research Database (NNRD) is a rich repository of pre-defined clinical data extracted at regular intervals from point-of-care, clinician-entered electronic patient records on all admissions to National Health Service neonatal units in England, Wales, and Scotland. We describe population coverage for England and assess data completeness and accuracy. METHODS:We determined population coverage of the NNRD in 2008-2014 through comparison with data on live births in England from the Office for National Statistics. We determined the completeness of seven data items on the NNRD. We assessed the accuracy of 44 data items (16 patient characteristics, 17 processes, 11 clinical outcomes) for infants enrolled in the multi-centre randomised controlled trial, Probiotics in Preterm Study (PiPs). We compared NNRD to PiPs data, the gold standard, and calculated discordancy rates using predefined criteria, and sensitivity, specificity and positive predictive values (PPV) of binary outcomes. RESULTS:The NNRD holds complete population data for England for infants born alive from 25+0 to 31+6 (completed weeks) of gestation; and 70% and 90% for those born at 23 and 24 weeks respectively. Completeness of patient characteristics was over 90%. Data were linked for 2257 episodes of care received by 1258 of the 1310 babies recruited to PiPs. Discordancy rates were <5% for 13/16 patient characteristics (exceptions: mode of delivery 8.7%; maternal ethnicity 10.2%, Lower layer Super Output Area 16.5%); <5% for 9/16 processes (exceptions: medical treatment for Patent ductus arteriosus 6.1%, high-dependency days 10.2%, central line days 11.2%, type of first milk 22.3%; and during first 14 days, summary of types of milk 13.8%; number of days of antibiotics 9.0%; whether antacid given 5.1%); and <5% for 10/11 clinical outcomes (exception: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia, defined as oxygen dependency at 36 weeks postmenstrual age 3.3%). The specificity of NNRD data was >85% for all outcomes; sensitivity ranged from 50-100%; PPV ranged from 58.8 (95% CI 40.8-75.4%) for porencephalic cyst to 99.7 (95% CI 99.2, 99.9%) for survival to discharge. CONCLUSIONS:The completeness and quality of data held in the NNRD is high, providing assurance in relation to use for multiple purposes, including national audit, health service evaluations, quality improvement, and research.
Project description:BackgroundOne in seven people living in the United Kingdom (UK) is an international migrant, rendering migrants an important population group with diverse and dynamic health and healthcare needs. However, there has been no attempt to map contemporary trends within migration health research conducted in the UK. The aim of this scoping review was to describe trends within migration health research and identify gaps for future research agendas.MethodsPubMed and Embase were systematically searched for empirical research with a primary focus on the concepts "health" and "migrants" published between 2001 and 2019. Findings were analysed using the UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health Conceptual Framework for Migration and Health.ResultsIn total, 399 studies were included, with almost half (41.1%; 164/399) published in the last five years of the study period between 2015 and 2019 and a third (34.1%; 136/399) conducted in London. Studies included asylum seekers (14.8%; 59/399), refugees (12.3%; 49/399), and undocumented migrants or migrants with insecure status (3.5%; 14/399), but most articles (74.9%; 299/399) did not specify a migrant sub-group. The most studied health topics were specific disease outcomes such as infectious diseases (24.1% of studies) and mental health (19.1%) compared to examining systems or structures that impact health (27.8%), access to healthcare (26.3%), or specific exposures or behaviours (35.3%).ConclusionsThere has been a growing interest in migration health. Ensuring a diverse geographic distribution of research conducted in the UK and disaggregation by migrant sub-group is required for a nuanced and region-specific understanding of specific health needs, interventions and appropriate service delivery for different migrant populations. More research is needed to understand how migration policy and legislation intersect with both the social determinants of health and access to healthcare to shape the health of migrants in the UK.
Project description:The Illumina Infinium 27k Human DNA methylation Beadchip v1.2 was used to obtain DNA methylation profiles across approximately 27,000 CpGs in whole blood samples from 540 samples, of which 266 were samples taken from postmenopausal women with ovarian cancer and 274 were from age-matched healthy controls Keywords: DNA methylation
Project description:BackgroundRecent in vitro and animal studies have found the proton pump inhibitor (PPI) lansoprazole to be highly active against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Omeprazole and pantoprazole have no activity. There is no evidence that, in clinical practice, lansoprazole can treat or prevent incident tuberculosis (TB) disease.Methods and findingsWe studied a cohort of new users of lansoprazole, omeprazole, or pantoprazole from the United Kingdom Clinical Practice Research Datalink to determine whether lansoprazole users have a lower incidence of TB disease than omeprazole or pantoprazole users. Negative control outcomes of myocardial infarction (MI) and herpes zoster were also studied. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression was used to adjust for potential confounding by a wide range of factors. We identified 527,364 lansoprazole initiators and 923,500 omeprazole or pantoprazole initiators. Lansoprazole users had a lower rate of TB disease (n = 86; 10.0 cases per 100,000 person years; 95% confidence interval 8.1-12.4) than omeprazole or pantoprazole users (n = 193; 15.3 cases per 100,000 person years; 95% confidence interval 13.3-17.7), with an adjusted hazard ratio (HR) of 0.68 (0.52-0.89). No association was found with MI (adjusted HR 1.04; 95% confidence interval 1.00-1.08) or herpes zoster (adjusted HR 1.03; 95% confidence interval 1.00-1.06). Limitations of this study are that we could not determine whether TB disease was due to reactivation of latent infection or a result of recent transmission, nor could we determine whether lansoprazole would have a beneficial effect if given to people presenting with TB disease.ConclusionsIn this study, use of the commonly prescribed and cheaply available PPI lansoprazole was associated with reduced incidence of TB disease. Given the serious problem of drug resistance and the adverse side effect profiles of many TB drugs, further investigation of lansoprazole as a potential antituberculosis agent is warranted.
Project description:PurposeStrategies to identify and validate acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and stroke in primary-care electronic records may impact effect measures, but to an unknown extent. Additionally, the validity of cardiovascular risk factors that could act as confounders in studies on those endpoints has not been thoroughly assessed in the United Kingdom Clinical Practice Research Datalink's (CPRD's) GOLD database. We explored the validity of algorithms to identify cardiovascular outcomes and risk factors and evaluated different outcome-identification strategies using these algorithms for estimation of adjusted incidence rate ratios (IRRs).MethodsFirst, we identified AMI, stroke, smoking, obesity, and menopausal status in a cohort treated for overactive bladder by applying computerized algorithms to primary care medical records (2004-2012). We validated these cardiovascular outcomes and risk factors with physician questionnaires (gold standard for this analysis). Second, we estimated IRRs for AMI and stroke using algorithm-identified and questionnaire-confirmed cases, comparing these with IRRs from cases identified through linkage with hospitalization/mortality data (best estimate).ResultsFor AMI, the algorithm's positive predictive value (PPV) was >90%. Initial algorithms for stroke performed less well because of inclusion of codes for prevalent stroke; algorithm refinement increased PPV to 80% but decreased sensitivity by 20%. Algorithms for smoking and obesity were considered valid. IRRs based on questionnaire-confirmed cases only were closer to IRRs estimated from hospitalization/mortality data than IRRs from algorithm-identified cases.ConclusionsAMI, stroke, smoking, obesity, and postmenopausal status can be accurately identified in CPRD. Physician questionnaire-validated AMI and stroke cases yield IRRs closest to the best estimate.