Blog posts

Involving parents to inform research into pre-school wheeze

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In conversation with: Dr Hanna Creese, Postdoctoral Research Associate working within the Child Health Unit, Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London 

What is your research about?

Our research explores pre-school wheeze. A third of preschool-aged (1-5 years) children experience wheeze, making them cough and/or have breathing difficulties. The number of preschool children in the United Kingdom (UK) who suffer or die from wheeze attacks is higher compared to that in other European countries. Recurrent wheeze can last throughout childhood and be an indication that the child will develop asthma.

Involving teenagers in research about the environment and mental health

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In conversation with: Rhiannon Thompson, PhD student working within the Imperial College Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the SCAMP study

What did you do? 

As part of my PhD project, I wanted to find out more about how adolescents are affected by their physical environments (their thoughts and feelings about urban and rural places, buildings and traffic, greenspace, nature, noise, etc). To begin with, I recruited 12 teenagers for a project design workshop where we brainstormed ideas for how this question could be answered.

Designing follow-up care for stroke with those who know it best

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In conversation with: Jennifer Crow, Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist in Stroke who is undertaking a NIHR Pre-doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship programme working within: Therapies/Stroke at Charing Cross Hospital, London

Jenny’s pre-doctoral fellowship is a partnership fellowship funded by the Stroke Association and the National Institute for Health Research.

What did you do? 

I ran my first virtual Patient Public Involvement Group via zoom with 6 attendees. I had previously been involved in public engagement activities in the form of patient stories and feedback but I had not attempted public involvement.

Are the statistics from Covid-19 vaccine trials understood?

Dr Suzie Cro, Research Fellow at the Imperial Clinical Trials Unit and the HEALTHY STATS public involvement group share insights from their recent online discussion of COVID-19 vaccines:

Right now, in the UK and across the world, vaccines for Covid-19 are being rolled out. You may have already received, or be expecting a vaccination offer sometime soon. Vaccines are thought to be our main hope to control the Covid-19 pandemic. Their use has only been possible following robust and rigorous clinical trials, which have demonstrated that they meet high safety and effectiveness standards set by the UK medicines regulator (the MHRA).

How women with experience of miscarriage helped shape and design my research

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In conversation with: Dr Bijal Patel, Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Registrar, Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction, Imperial College London

Project Details

My research aims to improve the diagnosis of miscarriage. Miscarriage currently takes several weeks to diagnose, resulting in significant psychological trauma for women and their families.

Levels of a hormone produced by the placenta, called ‘kisspeptin’, can be used to estimate the risk of miscarriage with a high degree of accuracy. The current method to measure kisspeptin levels in the blood takes several days to provide results and cannot be easily conducted in other centres.

Involving those with lived experience of Anorexia Nervosa in clinical trial design

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In conversation with: Dr Meg Spriggs (Research Associate) and Hannah Douglass (PhD Candidate)Centre for Psychedelic Research, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College, London

Working in collaboration with:  Dr Kirsty Alderton and Dr Frederico Magalhaes who offered mental health support for these focus groups.

What did you do?

There is a current lack of effective treatments for anorexia nervosa (an eating disorder characterised by weight loss, difficulties maintaining weight, and often a preoccupation with one’s own body weight and shape). With fewer than half of those diagnosed with anorexia making a full recovery, there is a desperate need for new treatment avenues to be explored.

Refining research through public involvement: experiences of an early career researcher

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In conversation with: Dr Lisa Newington, Research Associate

Working in collaboration with Dr Caroline Alexander and Prof Mary Wells at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and Imperial Clinical Academic Training Office

What did you do?

I’m currently developing a project to explore the perceived impacts of participating in healthcare research. Specifically, research that is led by healthcare professionals from outside medicine. This includes nurses, midwives, allied health professionals (such as occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, dietitians, radiographers) and pharmacists.

Evolving patient involvement: How local support and online resources helped foster patient involvement and improve the robustness of our study results

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In conversation with: Emma Lidington, PROFILES Trial Manager

Working within/Team name: PROFILES Team, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, The NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and The Institute of Cancer Research

The value of lived experience

Experts have recommended that academics should actively involve patients and the public in every phase of research to meaningfully incorporate the voice of those with lived experience. However, achieving this goal can seem daunting, particularly as an early career researcher. In our project, the level of patient involvement evolved over the course of the study, with the Public Involvement Research Hub and local funding from my institution as huge drivers of that change.