Recognising Nottingham’s NHS research heroes
Last year almost 14,000 patients took part in over 600 research trials at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) and earlier this week the people behind those trials stepped into the spotlight, as the Trust’s Research & Innovation department celebrated their achievements.
The Research Excellence Awards are nominated by patients, members of the public and NUH staff, and were set up four years ago to celebrate the contributions that research makes to the care provided by NUH for patients across all services, from neurology to children’s health, and from radiology to surgery.
The awards, held in Nottingham on Tuesday evening, also recognise the volunteers who regularly give up their time to support research teams and improve the experience of people who take part in clinical trials at NUH.
Professor Ian Hall, Co-Clinical Director of Research & Innovation and Director of the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, said:
“The last year has been a very strong one for clinical research in Nottingham, and it is important that we celebrate the contributions our staff make in so many ways to patients living with serious illnesses through their research.
“We know that patients who are treated at a ‘research active’ hospital fare better in terms of their outcomes, and we have ambitious plans for the coming years to continue advancing healthcare for the benefit of people living in Nottingham, the UK and far beyond through our discoveries.”
Professor Stephen Ryder, Co-Clinical Director of Research & Innovation, said:
“I never fail to be impressed about the achievements of our research staff who once again have gone that extra mile in so many ways to deliver tangible improvements to our approaches to treating and diagnosing diseases.
“The stories of our researchers are truly inspiring and humbling; it was a pleasure to present these awards with Professor Hall and help our own research heroes celebrate with their peers.”
Among the NUH winners were research teams recognised for the biggest contribution to the success of research studies in the East Midlands in neurology and surgery-related trials aiming to find new treatments, improve diagnosis and contribute to better understanding of how diseases develop and effect patients.
One of the Research Excellence Award winners was the NUH Radiology Service who supported Dr Carolyn Costigan, Co-Principal Investigator for the MIDI Study, which is research to enable doctors to identify serious brain tumors, cysts and haemorrhages quicker from scans taken using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
She said: “I’m really pleased we achieved the runner-up in the Research Excellence Award category, this award recognises the NUH radiology team and their work for the MIDI Study where they have done a fantastic job in recruiting almost 850 patients since the study began.
“Our radiology staff are very busy in their clinical roles, but for MIDI they have gone above and beyond in approaching patients to participate in this study. They have made an amazing effort and we are over halfway towards our ambitious target of 1,500 patients. NUH is one of the first sites outside London to start the study and we have been very good at recruiting.”
The number of people taking part in research trials at NUH has been steadily increasing and is almost back to Pre-Pandemic levels, whereas during the pandemic researchers concentrated on finding new treatments and vaccines for COVID-19. This is a trend that is reflected across research in the country with almost 1 million people taking part according to figures issued this week by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). In 2022-23, nationally the number of people who took part would have filled Wembley Stadium almost ten times over.
Here is the full list of the Research Excellence Awards 2023 winners:
Altruism Award
Winner: Helen Navarra, Children’s Research Delivery Team
Research Excellence Award
Winner: Neurology Research Team
Research Partnership Award
Winner: Hearing Theme, NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre
Research Excellence Impact Award
Winner: Gita Rana, Surgery Delivery Team
Early Career Researcher
Winner: Dr Sudarsana De, Family Health Division
People’s Research Award
Winner: Grace Quinn, Research Volunteer
Directors’ Awards
Dr Neil Guha, Professor of Hepatology, University of Nottingham and The National Centre for Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust