The Western Trust marked International Clinical Trials Day (19 May 2017) by raising awareness and understanding among healthcare professionals, patients and the public of the importance of research in everyday care and supporting the Public Health Agency (PHA) campaign that “It’s OK to Ask” about clinical research.
Dr. Aaron Peace, Western Trust Director for Research and Development said: “The Western Trust is strongly committed to clinical research and has an active research programme with approximately 135 studies on-going at any one time and over 60 new studies starting every year. International Clinical Trials Day provides an opportunity to highlight how easy it is to find out about and take part in healthcare research."
In the health service, each potential new treatment, diagnostic aid, or service development is tested before its widespread adoption. Every year, thousands of people agree to become participants in research studies, contributing to advances in health care. All treatments, therapies and drugs have at some time been the subject of research. Without willing participants this would not be possible.
Dr. Peace continued: “We have a large team of research staff - medical, nursing, pharmacy, laboratory, undertaking research in a range of disease areas and purpose built facilities at the Clinical Translational and Research and Innovation Centre [C-TRIC] on the Altnagelvin Hospital campus. I am keen that as many people as possible should have the opportunity to take part in research studies as this allows our community to be involved in identifying why people get certain diseases and exposes our patients to cutting edge treatment. Anyone who is interested should ask their doctor or nurse or contact the Western Trust Research and Development Office for more information.”
Western Trust Research and Development Manager, Sally Doherty said: “In recognition of the importance of promoting patient participation in clinical trials and encouraging service user involvement in research, we hosted information stands at Altnagelvin Hospital, Derry/Londonderry, Tyrone County Hospital, Omagh and the South West Acute Hospital, Enniskillen. The events were delivered by a great team effort across nursing and admin staff and were well received by members of the public, visitors and staff in each of the hospitals who found out about the many different ways to get involved in research which will help us improve future treatments and services.”
To contact the Western Trust Research Office click here>