Great Ormond Street Hospital is in top three acute specialist trusts for research activity

Great Ormond Street Hospital is one of the top Trusts leading the way in providing opportunities for patients to take part in clinical research studies.A league table published by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network, details the number of studies undertaken by each individual Trust, and the number of patients they recruit into those studies. For the first time this year the table also categorises NHS Trusts into organisations with similar characteristics, which allows comparisons to be made between Trusts in similar circumstances. Great Ormond Street currently features in third place in the Acute Specialist Trusts category; conducting 105 studies, an increase of 20 studies on last year’s figure.

Dr Jonathan Sheffield is Chief Executive of the NIHR Clinical Research Network, which provides specialist research nurses and resources to enable NHS Trusts to deliver clinical research opportunities for patients. Praising the achievement of Great Ormond Street Hospital, he said:

“This is marvellous news and illustrates that our partners at Great Ormond Street are truly placing research at the core of NHS business. We know from recent polls that patients want to see the NHS do research, and they want the chance to get involved. This Trust’s recruitment of 1,584 patients indicates a strong commitment to research and innovation as well as their drive to improve clinical outcomes for patients.

“We are keen to see other Trusts follow their example and truly embed research as a standard option within their care culture, and this year we’re able to report that 99% of NHS Trusts in England were involved in delivering research during 2011/12. With their help we recruited almost 600,000 patients, which was a fantastic achievement. The league table helps us recognise the research commitment of NHS staff throughout England and shows that clinical research is not just for the large teaching hospitals - it is absolutely core business for all NHS Trusts.”

Developing a research-active culture brings a host of benefits for patients, clinicians and the NHS. It drives innovation, gives rise to better and more cost-effective treatments, and creates opportunities for staff development. Growing evidence also suggests that NHS organisations that are research-active appear to do better in overall performance.

Commenting on the league table results, Professor Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department of Health, said: “This data from the NIHR Clinical Research Network is encouraging and shows us that high quality research is happening but we need to keep pushing for research to have the profile it deserves with both doctors and their patients."

Professor David Goldblatt, Director of Clinical Research and Development at GOSH and Director of the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at GOSH/UCL, said: “We are proud to provide so many opportunities for hospital patients to take part in clinical studies. The clinical research carried out collaboratively between Great Ormond Street Hospital and the UCL Institute of Child Health is essential for advancing medical treatments and our understanding of rare and complex conditions manifesting first in childhood.”

To view the research activity league table in full visit: www.crncc.nihr.ac.uk/nhs-performance