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.
Our practices are working with and supported by the South West Central NIHR Research Delivery Network (SWC RDN) to participate in high quality research, thereby advancing knowledge and improving care. Currently engaged in several 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.
If you would like to register interest in research here are 2 NIHR research registers, that interest members of the public can join:
People with dementia or memory problems, their carers and anyone over 18 who is interested can sign up. You can sign up online, over the phone or by post.
These registers will help to match you with studies in which you could participate – these might be online or in your local area.
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 and recent Studies:
10 of our member practices are looking for individuals for the following study that is looking at how the social and cognitive mechanisms of antidepressants:
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.
CORAL
Coenzyme Q10 in chronic heart failure
Kingswood Medical Group are in the setup stages for this research trial that is aiming to determine the clinical and cost effectiveness of CoQ10 added to usual care of patients with heart failure in primary care. More information about the study, including a video can be found here CORAL – Coenzyme Q10 in heart failure
Accessing Continuity
Several of our member practices are contributing to this study that is investigating the level of continuity of care that is being delivered in UK general practice. They are also investigating how
different ‘access systems’ to general practice affect continuity of care. Access systems are the different ways that practices manage supply and demand by varying appointment availability, modality,
length, clinician type and the use of triage systems. More information about the study can be found here Accessing Continuity (2025 – ongoing) — Primary care Academic CollaboraTive (PACT)
Pregnancy PIC study
The University of Bath is recruiting pregnant women (any trimester), midwives, and obstetricians to take part in a short 30-minute online interview to discuss exercise during pregnancy. Follow this link to find out more and sign up. https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/bathreg/the-interview-study-participant-information-sheet-and-contact-d
The University of Bath was recruiting pregnant women up to 17 weeks pregnant to participate in an observational study tracking activity and movement throughout early, middle, and late pregnancy. The aim of the study is to understand how motivation, fear of harming the baby, and physical activity in leisure time may be associated or change throughout pregnancy. The participant will be required to wear an activity monitor on their wrist for 7 days, whilst answering a short questionnaire twice a day. This is repeated 8 weeks apart twice more. Follow this link to find out more and sign up. https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/bathreg/diary-study-participant-information-sheet
Please click below for information on other projects that Brunel Health Group are promoting:
Further Research projects we have helped to promote
