Why is this important?
High quality research in the NHS is a core part of clinical care. We know that hospitals active in research have improved outcomes for patients, and they are also positively associated with patient-reported care quality.1,2 In England, the Care Quality Commission has now included clinical research activity as part of its remit for trust inspections. Many clinicians see research as an important part of their job but are challenged by the lack of protected time for it.3
It’s important that every healthcare professional working in the NHS is active in research, whether this is identifying opportunities for new research, recruiting patients, supporting colleagues or leading trials themselves.
Facilitating research should be part of core NHS activity and seen as a key indicator of improving patient care. Services should increase their research activity and healthcare professionals should be supported to pursue research activity as far as they wish to. This will mean more patients than ever can have the opportunity to be involved with or benefit from clinical research.
Healthcare professionals should:
- Be proactive in seeking opportunities for their patients to be involved in research by supporting local principal investigators and chief investigators
- Be able to easily access available information about current IBD research activity
- Actively seek opportunities to engage in recruiting patients to research studies
- Support colleagues and their IBD MDT to be research active
- Be encouraged and feel able to ask their MDT about opportunities to be involved in research
- Feel able to access tools and networks to learn about benefits, opportunities, participation and involvement in research
- Feel able to make informed choices about participating in research
Patients should:
- Be encouraged and feel able to ask their MDT about opportunities to be involved in research
- Feel able to access tools and networks to learn about benefits, opportunities, participation and involvement in research
- Feel able to make informed choices about participating in research
The 2024 IBD UK National Report recorded positive signs that services are offering research opportunities. 76% of services agreed that people with IBD are recruited to observational, registry and/or UK Clinical Research network clinical trials at their site. However, there is clearly work to be done in spreading awareness of such opportunities, as only 9% of patients reported being offered specific opportunities to participate in research, with 10% receiving information about clinical trials and research.