GOSH pharmacists are on a research journey

The Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) pharmacy team are on a journey to build their research portfolio and embed research expertise in their team through collaborative work between GOSH, University College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (UCL GOSH ICH) and the UCL School of Pharmacy.

It is crucial that research is carried out in this area to help improve knowledge and outcomes for patients at GOSH and beyond. Few medicines are made specifically for children, with only 14% of medicines licensed for children when they reach the UK market and 22% of patients experience adverse issues relating to this.

The Children’s Medicines Research & Innovation Centre (CMRIC) is crucial to this work and aims to embed research and clinical expertise into the team.

The centre is primarily made up of members of the GOSH pharmacy team:

• Stephen Tomlin, director of the CMRIC
• Ofran Almossawi, research pharmacist who has worked most of her time in clinical care and clinical trials
• Professor Joe Standing, an expert in paediatric pharmacokinetic modelling
• Fan Cheng, principal pharmacist in immunology and immunotherapies
• Orlagh McGarrity, infection pharmacist

The team collaborate with partners from UCL GOS ICH and UCL School of Pharmacy.

Output from the team has gone up significantly in recent years. In 2023/24 they were involved in the publishing of over 50 publications and abstracts. This included conference abstracts, presentations and research published in peer reviewed journals.

The team also recently led a successful bid alongside the GOSH labs team from the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) to purchase two mass spec machines which will allow them to do drug assays to both support research and make cost savings by bringing routine therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) in-house. This also allows for closer analysis of drug levels in patients leading to more effective optimisation of drug dosing, more effective treatment and less toxicity.

Stephen Tomlin, Director of the CMRIC explains why the centre was set up:

“The creation of the Children’s Medicines Research and Innovation Centre (CMRIC) has enabled the department to have a specific focus on research. It is the creation of this hub that is enabling us to be seen internally and externally as a group to work with and thus enhance our outputs. The creation was designed to:

• Improve the use of medicines for children through innovation and research; locally, nationally and internationally.
• Act as a “Think Tank” for children’s medicines and medicine use.
• Create a hub for scientific research and innovation for children’s medicines.

Every aspect of children’s medicines and medicine practice requires more research and we are encouraging the whole department to have “enquiring minds” and with the support of CMRIC we want to work with and through the whole team to generate the evidence and the answers – enhancing the outcomes for our patients.”

Public and patient involvement is crucial in shaping research. The past couple of years has seen a range of activities organised by CMRIC colleagues or supported by CMRIC to engage young people in their research.

In collaboration with young people, the team developed a short video – The Right Dose – to highlight the difficulties with paediatric medicine and why research is needed. They also co-produced a comic strip with young people to summarise findings of a research study.

The team also ran an educational event with children exploring what they thought of research and how they’d like to be involved.

Fan Cheng, Principal Pharmacist in Immunology and Immunotherapies at GOSH said:

"Young people told us they want to be involved in every step of the research process — and rightly so, as research directly impacts the care and services they receive. Their input makes research more focused, meaningful, and translatable, helping us prioritise studies that truly matter to them as service users."

In 2023 the team set up the London Paediatric Research Network, an opportunity to bring together pharmacy teams from across London to discuss and share learnings.

Last year the team organised the first network meeting with the hope that this will be an annual event allowing members to share updates and network with others who are either actively involved in the delivery of research or at the start of their research journey.

The team have also collaborated on a number of projects with University College London Hospitals, Imperial College London, Goldsmiths University, and UCL GOS ICH. The team hope they can formalise links with UCL to allow for further research and collaboration.

The team have achieved a lot in the past couple of years with an impressive increase in their research output. They hope that their work, supported by the CMRIC, will offer a different strategy in addressing the challenges faced in paediatric medicine.

Other developments such as the arrival of Electronic Patient Record (EPR) data, a drive from the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) to increase capacity in underrepresented professions like Pharmacy, and an increased understanding of the impact that genetics, genomics and new technologies can have on personalised medicine is contributing to this journey.

They hope that having a centre like CMRIC embedded in the NHS will also help to demonstrate a clear career pathway for pharmacist clinical academics, enabling better transition between clinical and research roles.

Jayne Ballinger, Chief Pharmacist at GOSH said:

“As a department we are committed to providing the best care for our patients therefore it is essential we build the capacity and capability of our staff to question, seek, and provide solutions with credibility and evidence. This is crucial in our role supporting clinicians in the hospital but also to GOSH as a leader in paediatric care.”