Your Path In Research
To support improved patient outcomes there is a need for health and care professionals to become more involved in research and expand their knowledge. The NIHR announced the start of an exciting new campaign, Your Path in Research, which coincides with the birthday of James Lind. The campaign aims to inspire health care professionals to get more involved in research.
James Lind is famous for conducting the first ever clinical trial while serving as a surgeon. His experiment on board the HMS Salisbury in 1747 showed that oranges and lemons were a cure for scurvy.
Your Path in Research recognises that everyone providing or supporting care in the NHS uses clinical research, but not everyone is aware of how to incorporate it on a daily basis.
This new campaign will give health and care professionals an opportunity to learn more about the research that can directly impact their everyday work, by highlighting a variety of ways they can take their first or next step in their research career.
William Van’t Hoff, NIHR Clinical Director for NHS Engagement, said:
“There is now good evidence that research-active hospitals provide better care for patients. But, during a busy day on the wards, research may not seem like a relevant priority. This campaign shows that, with the right tools and support, everyone can play a part in supporting research and that integrating it into our routine work is good for patients and good for ourselves.”
Research is for everyone. Research active Trusts have better health outcomes and patients value the opportunity to participate in research studies and trials as part of their care.
Cambridge University Hospital (CUH) NHS Foundation Trust is a national and international leader in health research and were named by NIHR as a top performing Trust in 2019 for the most amount of research studies carried out.
Research and innovation is to drive our future outcomes and improvements and that is why it is heavily mentioned in the NHS long term plan. One of the NHS objectives is to have 1 million people to participate in clinical trails by 2024. so far over 850,000 people participated in health related research in 2018/2019 across the UK.
How to get involved
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) now has a remit to assess how Trusts are supporting and using clinical research to improve patient care.
We want CUH staff to become more engaged with research by knowing how to signpost if a patient asks or if you would like to find out more about undertaking your own research study. Here are a few places to find out about research at CUH:
- NIHR Cambridge CRF– where patients and healthy volunteers take part in research trials.
- NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre – a partnership between CUH and University of Cambridge who support and fund research and provide essential infrastructure and facilities to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. They also encourage more NHS staff to undertake their own research study, more information can be found on the Fellows pages or the Nursing/ AHP pages
- NIHR BioResource – a panel of thousands of volunteers with or without health conditions who can take part in research
- CUH – Research and how to start your research project/ study
- Be Part of Research – find out what trials are happening near you
Research is for everyone and we can help you find out more. Don’t be shy, just ask!
