Research

Brunel Health Group and its member practices have a keen interest in participating in research within primary care to improve the health and care not only of our registered population across Swindon and Shrivenham, but also the wider population of the United Kingdom.

www.bepartofresearch.uk

Our practices are working with and supported by the West of England NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) to participate in high quality research, thereby advancing knowledge and improving care. Currently engaged in 12 research studies, our aim over the next few years is to grow our research capacity both in terms of local staff and workforce but also working with partners and communities to encourage our population to be involved and benefit from new types of treatment and care.

To read more about taking part in research with BHG click the following link:

Taking part in Research information for patients

Some of our Current Studies:

Whalebridge Practice, Ashington House surgery, Park Lane Practice and Phoenix Surgery are taking part in the ThinkCancer! trial.

The ThinkCancer! Research study has been developed to help general practices recognize possible cancers earlier. Participating practices will either receive the unique education training package to all staff or continue usual care. At the end of the study practices that did not receive the training will be compared with those that had the ThinkCancer! training through collection of data that indicates the time between a patient first contacting their general practice with a potential cancer symptom and their referral to hospital. This is known as the Primary Care Interval (PCI). The aim is to establish if the training package to Practice staff is both effective and cost-effective. Reducing the PCI is known to be linked with an earlier stage of cancer at diagnosis, needing less treatment, hopefully better patient outcomes and a reduction in cost to the NHS overall.

Elm Tree surgery is supporting this study looking at brain changes during the withdrawal of antidepressants:

If you are interested please contact Seline Uran (seline.uran@nhs.net 07901335096).

Victoria Cross Surgery is supporting TIGER:

Many of our practices are supporting:

SELF FRAX

3 of our BHG Practices are contributing to the University of Bristol

“Deprescribing of long-term medicines in the context of limited life expectancy” study:

Many medicines have long-term benefits and prevent illness. Over the last year or two of life, however, the benefit of continuing to take long-term medicines maybe small and no longer helpful. Stopping medicines (also known as deprescribing) at this stage could improve quality of life, reduce side effects and treatment burden. To do this sensitively and effectively, there is a need to find out what information would help patients and healthcare professionals to make decisions to stop long-term medicines.

The aim of this study is to find out more about when and how patients and healthcare professionals in GP practices would prefer to have conversations about stopping long-term medicines.

The researchers are inviting people who are aged 65 years or more and living with and taking medicines for 2 or more long-term conditions. This is because they wish to speak to a range of people to seek their views and opinions.

Elm Tree Surgery is supporting the ATHENA shingles study

We want to find out if taking amitriptyline can prevent the persistent pain that some people get after shingles.

50 years or older and recently got shingles? You may be able to take part. Ask your doctor for more information.

Shingles is a distinctive blistering rash that appears on only one side of the body and is painful.

If you think you have shingles, ask for a same day appointment as you may benefit from antiviral medication.

You may also be eligible for an NHS study (the ATHENA shingles study), to find out whether a treatment can prevent persistent pain, months after the rash has gone.

Website: www.bristol.ac.uk/athena-study

Email: athena-study@bristol.ac.uk

Twitter: @AthenaStudy

Many of our practices are contributing to

BEACON: Brain Training App for Cognition in People with Long Covid

The most concerning legacy of the Covid-19 pandemic is Long-Covid which affects at least 9.9% of people. About 25% of people with Long-Covid experience problems with their brain health, such as memory problems. People with these symptoms can find it harder to get back to their normal lives. We don’t yet know if there are any longer-term effects, but it is important that we find a way to treat these symptoms. The Reasoning Cognitive Training (ReaCT) brain training programme is available online and is known to help maintain brain health in older adults but has not yet been tested in people with Long-Covid. This BEACON study aims to establish the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the ReaCT brain training programme in adults with cognitive impairment following Covid-19. If you are interested in taking part in BEACON, please contact bswicb.researchbrunelhealthgroup@nhs.net to see if you can participate.