News and events

World admin Day 2021

On Wednesday 21 April 2021 we celebrate World Administration Professionals Day and give an enormous thank you to our fantastic administration team here in the NIHR Sheffield CRF.

All the team work so hard and we could not have achieved the successes we have without them in what has been an incredible year!

(April 2021)

2020: A Year to Remember at NIHR Sheffield CRF

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt across the NHS and research infrastructure like nothing else in the lifetime of Clinical Research Facilities (CRF).

Whilst we can see and appreciate the struggles and challenges the last 12 months has brought, now is surely the time to celebrate the achievements and triumphs of the research infrastructure. We look forwards to a time when we can reflect on how adaptations that we have made could be for the better.

The NIHR Sheffield CRF would like to take an opportunity to share some of the adaptations we have made in a time when there has never been more awareness of clinical research thanks to advancements that we have contributed to with unprecedented speed.

Please read more in our blog for the UKCRF Network

(March 2021)

Researchers from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals help to save up to 1 million lives worldwide by pioneering highly effective COVID-19 theraPY

Researchers from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have played a leading role in helping to pioneer a highly effective COVID-19 therapy that has saved 22,000 lives in the UK and an estimated one million worldwide.

The number of people who have successfully been treated as part of the RECOVERY trial, which found that Dexamethasone, an inexpensive and widely available steroid, cut the risk of death by a third for COVID-19 patients on ventilators and for those on oxygen it cut deaths by almost a fifth (published on 23 March 2021).

Please read more on the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals News Page

(March 2021)

News and events from 2020

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals chosen to lead major Covid-19 Vaccine STUDY

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of 17 sites across the country, and the only one in the Yorkshire and Humber, to have been selected to trial the latest Covid-19 candidate vaccine.

Researchers from the Trust will be calling on 330 people, some from the NHS Covid-19 Research Vaccines Registry, to take part in the large scale study which will recruit up to 30,000 people worldwide.

The Phase 3 study is being co-funded by the UK government’s Vaccine Taskforce and will test the safety and effectiveness of a new two-dose regimen for a vaccine candidate, developed by The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.

The project will see volunteers visit the CRF and receive two injections of the trial vaccine within a two-month period. No one taking part in this study will be disadvantaged when a Covid-19 vaccine is approved and rolled out for general use.

Please read more on the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals News and Events webpage.

(November 2020)

NHS Covid-19 Vaccine research registry

A new NHS service has been launched today (20 July), helping people across the UK sign up for information on the new COVID-19 vaccine trials.

Please click on the links below for more information and details on how to sign up:

NIHR news story

Be Part of Research

nhs.uk/researchcontact

(July 2020)

International Clinical Trials Day 2020

International Clinical Trials Day is held each year on 20th May and commemorates the date when the first controlled clinical trial was conducted in 1747. Since then, research has played a vital role in improving healthcare for everyone.

Now more than ever clinical research is crucial, as it will help us understand more about COVID-19, and progress the development of potential treatments and effective vaccines in the future. Developing drugs and vaccines usually takes a number of years, but now, internationally and nationally, funding bodies, researchers and regulatory authorities are working tirelessly together to accomplish this process much quicker for COVID-19 research. However, there are still challenges ahead, such as if a suitable vaccine is identified, how quickly can it be mass produced for the global population. Researchers and healthcare professionals from the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are working together at the forefront of this urgent research.

If you would like to hear more about how Sheffield is at the centre of this important work, you are invited to join a live online discussion via Skype with experts from the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust about research into COVID-19 on 24th June 2020 at 6pm.

The live discussion will be hosted by Sheffield Culture Hub, a collaboration between the University of Sheffield, Sheffield City Council and Our Favourite Places, launched to host arts and cultural events online, as well as other activities from around the city to support the cultural and creative sectors during the coronavirus lockdown.

We are asking members of the public to submit their questions about COVID-19 research for our panel of experts by 10 June 2020, and they will try and answer as many as they can during the event. To submit your questions please complete this online form.

You can also keep up to date on all things ICTD throughout the day on our Twitter feed.

(May 2020)

News and events from 2019

atrial fibrillation procedure could slash waiting lists

Results from the AVATAR-AF trial which we ran here in Sheffield CRF were presented at EHRA 2019, a European Society of Cardiology (ESC) congress on 17th March 2019.

Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disorder. It causes 20–30% of all strokes and increases the risk of dying prematurely. Catheter ablation, aimed at burning or freezing heart tissue causing atrial fibrillation, is recommended to restore normal rhythm after failure of, or intolerance to, drug treatment.

The AVATAR-AF study stripped back the procedure of catheter ablation to the bare essentials to see if similar outcomes were achieved as the more complex procedures currently used.

As Principal investigator Professor Prapa Kanagaratnam, of Imperial College London said, the results showed that “some of the more technical parts of the procedure can be omitted, making it easier, cheaper and quicker, without sacrificing results. In the UK, patients with atrial fibrillation have to wait months for catheter ablation. The simpler protocol could shorten waiting lists within the same budget.”

(Mar 2019)

PHARMACY PLACEMENTS IN THE CRF

This year we were delighted to welcome our first ever trainee pharmacists from the University of Sheffield to the CRF as part of their placements.

The research week rotation involved the students spending the week learning about protocols involved with clinical trials and the process of dispensing with our colleagues in the research pharmacy team in Sheffield.

They then had the opportunity to come up to the CRF, enabling the students to follow the research process and learn about the patient’s perceptions of being involved in research and what it means to them.

The feedback from the placement has been very strong and we are hoping to welcome even more new pharmacy trainees in the future, inspiring an interest in working on clinical trials throughout their careers

(Mar 2019)

WORLD KIDNEY DAY 2019

Our CRF Renal Research Team celebrated World Kidney Day at a city centre event at Central United Reformed Church raising awareness of all of the research studies we are undertaking here in Sheffield CRF.

Around 50-60 patients, relatives and members of the public attended the event and learned all about the theme for this year '“𝗞𝗶𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲” from a multidisciplinary clinical and research teams including dietitians, the transplant and dialysis teams, research nurses and fellow patients and relatives.

The ins and outs of children transitioning into adult renal care and a couples experience of transplant, where a wife had received a kidney from her husband, were among the fascinating talks given on the day.

(Mar 2019)

Liver drug trialled in Parkinson's patients for the first time

A pilot study looking to assess the potential of a drug to slow down disease progression of Parkinson's is being run in Sheffield CRF in collaboration with NIHR Sheffield BRC for Neurological Disorders.

Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) has been used to treat liver disease for over 30 years and has been identified as the most promising drug to rescue mitochondrial function in Parkinson’s in a drug screen where 2,000 drugs were assessed for their rescue effect on mitochondrial function directly in the tissue of patients with Parkinson’s.

Professor Oliver Bandmann, who's leading the research has said:

"This is a pilot trial, which if successful, will lead to a bigger study to firmly establish the effectiveness of the treatment to slow down progression of Parkinson’s. Currently, Parkinson’s is relentlessly progressive but patients tend to respond very well to symptomatic medication in the early stages of the disease.

A drug which will slow down the progression of the disease – even after the first few years of diagnosis – would help people to have an improved quality of life for longer.”

For more information about the study please click the University of Sheffield News Archives

(Feb 2019)

RESEARCH SISTER INVOLVED IN TRUST REVERSE MENTORING SCHEME

In 2018-19, the Trust Board of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals adopted a reverse mentoring initiative whereby traditional mentoring has been ‘reversed’.

Faith, one of our wonderful Research Sisters, has been involved in the scheme and she has found it to be an extremely valuable experience.

Faith said "As one of the black, asian and minority ethnic (BAME) members of staff as ‘Mentor’ for the last six months, I’ve had an opportunity to be matched with a trust executive director who took the role of ‘Mentee’. This allowed me to share my experiences with my mentee both inside and outside of STH and also allowed the mentee to see what it is like to work in the organisation from a BAME perspective. This also gave me access to shadow and see life in the organisation from a senior member of staff’s point of view."

Faith, and her mentee, are going to continue their partnership to further progress the valuable skill and knowledge transfer which the scheme has already brought to them, their immediate departments and the Trust as a whole.

(Jan 2019)

CRF RESEARCH THERAPISTS TO PRESENT AT ANNUAL CONFERENCE

In Sheffield CRF, we are very lucky to have two research therapists working with us. Kate, our Physiotherapist and Louise, our Occupational Therapist are an extremely valued part of our team and they are great advocates for other Allied Health Professionals to get involved in research.

We're therefore delighted to be able to announce that they will be presenting at the The Royal College of Occupational Therapists Annual Conference in 2019. Their presentation 'Building allied health professions (AHP) research capacity: the impact of introducing an occupational therapist into a nurse led clinical research facility' will demonstrate the importance of having a multi-disciplinary workforce involved in research.

(Jan 2019)

MEDICAL STUDENT PLACEMENTS IN THE CRF

This year we were very excited to be a placement for medical students from the University of Sheffield for the first time.

We are a very unique clinical environment, working across sites, across specialties and as both an inpatient and outpatient facility. We were therefore able to offer a very varied placement from seeing patients in Gastroenterology and Renal outpatient departments, attending a pulmonary hypertension MDT and observing patient study visits from first in human Phase 1 trials to observational studies in such varied specialties as Oncology, Dermatology, Cardiology, Diabetes and Neurosciences. One student even attended an A&E trauma call on the helipad.

Embedding research as a key part of clinical care is a key aim for us here at Sheffield CRF and we hope that these placements will inspire medical students to make research a big part of their career and that we'll see some of them back here as the PIs of the future.

(Jan 2019)

new STUDY IN irritable bowel syndrome FEATURED IN SHEFFIELD STAR and sheffield telegraph

We're delighted to be supporting a new innovative study funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) looking at whether an anti-sickness drug, ondansetron, commonly given to patients having cancer treatments such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy could improve the lives of patients suffering with diarrhoea-predominant irritable bowel syndrome (#IBS).

To read more about the trial visit the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals News Page

(Jan 2019)

Members of the Clinical Team involved in the study