Health trusts recruit thousands for coronavirus research in West Midlands
Three health trusts across West Midlands and Staffordshire have featured in a top 10 for the highest number of participants in coronavirus studies.
A total of 9,742 patients are taking part in 20 pieces of research to better understand the virus and hopefully help to find a cure.
It means the region is currently recruiting more participants to studies than any other area in the UK – coinciding with International Clinical Trials Day.
Professor Jeremy Kirk, network clinical director of the Clinical Research Network West Midlands, said: "In these extraordinary times it is both amazing and very heartening to see the hard-pressed NHS staff nationally, and especially in the West Midlands, coming together to recruit as many patients with Covid-19 as possible into these ground-breaking trials.
"Our collaborations are offering research opportunities to thousands of patients and we thank everyone who is taking part."
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The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT), University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, University Hospitals of North Midlands all feature in the top 10.
In Wolverhampton, a total of 793 patients will take part across a series of nine research studies – focusing on breathing difficulties.
It will also review the triage of people using the emergency care system, pregnancy, and why some patients are more susceptible than others.
Professor Matt Brookes, researcher at RWT, said: "The challenges to our clinical teams in recent months have been significant.
"We all knew that there were limited treatment options for Covid-19 and as such our clinicians and researchers realised the importance of research studies in an attempt to battle this virus.
"To have delivered such a breadth and depth of research at this time is an amazing achievement.
"This is down to successful collaborative working between our trust’s management teams, clinicians, researchers and their positive engagement with our colleagues in the clinical research network.
"This proactive team-working has enabled the trust’s team to provide access for a huge number of patients to these research studies.
"All of these outcomes will be fed back nationally to allow us to be better informed about successful treatment options against Covid-19 for the future."
