Professor Ian Hall, Director, NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre updates on the first 100 patients taking part in COVID-19 trials in Nottingham.
Professor Ian Hall says: I suspect we are now entering the most difficult period of the COVID-19 outbreak. Translational research has much to offer at this time and ultimately will inform strategies and treatments to deal with this disease in the most effective way.
Today we are providing an update on progress with COVID-19 related research from the Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre and Clinical Research Facility.
The last week has seen us mobilise rapidly to meet the challenges of opening new COVID-19 research studies. We have prioritised our research programme to directly support the national and international coordination of scientifically significant research for COVID-19. As a consequence, we have inevitably had to pause some of the studies in our existing (non-COVID-19) research portfolio. We have also implemented remote working wherever possible to ensure the safety of patients, carers and our staff.
We are supporting the new national process for identifying and accelerating important COVID-19 research; in Nottingham, we are currently directing BRC and Clinical Research Facility resources particularly into the RECOVERY trial. Nottingham patients are also benefitting from five other national studies which are contributing data, tissue and evidence from patients in emergency care, intensive care, maternity services and our admissions units. In the first week, more than 110 patients have been recruited into these studies.
Nottingham is also part of the HDRUK BREATHE research hub, which is building data sets and analysis for respiratory illnesses across the UK. This important resource will now also be supporting the detailed analysis of data collected from the COVID-19 App developed by our colleagues at Kings College London and Guys and St Thomas’ BRC. The App is collecting data from 2 million users who are regularly reporting their symptoms.
Finally, I would like to recognise and thank the many members of the clinical research community who are adapting their roles to ensure that we support clinical colleagues on the frontline of NHS care. Amongst our BRC and CRF colleagues, we are working alongside hospital teams to ensure that as many COVID-19 patients as possible are included in research trials and we will continue to do everything we can to offer the best possible care to our patients.