Tag: Public involvement

Why has nobody asked us?! Our journey so far to co-produce research.

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In conversation with Dr Helen Skirrow, National Institute Health Research Clinical Doctoral Research Fellow, Child Health Unit, Department of Primary Care and Public Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London. and Lena Choudary-Salter, Founder and CEO of The Mosaic Community Trust

What is “Why has nobody asked us?” about?

“Why has nobody asked us?” aims to explore families’ experiences and perspectives of childhood vaccinations and is a co-production research project between Dr Helen Skirrow and The Mosaic Community Trust. In the UK, children living in poorer areas of big cities like London who belong to ethnic minorities or who do not speak English at home are less likely to be vaccinated however in previous research the voices of these families have often been missing.

Involving Year One students to help shape research into physical activity and child health

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

What is your research about and what did you do?

Our research is the iMprOVE cohort study which is investigating children’s physical activity and mental health in primary schools that do and do not implement physical activity interventions. Regular physical activity is known to have many health benefits but only half of children in England meet the recommended guidelines of 60 minutes of physical activity per day.

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.

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.