When I was growing up I used to help my Dad do DIY around the house. Our perennial companion was a thick, hard-bound manual with step-by-step guides on how to do anything and everything. No job was too big or too small for it. From replacing a chimney stack to changing a plug. Dad passed... Continue Reading →
Who are the good, the bad and the ugly at involving the public in medical research? New comparative figures for Government, charities and industry
What should we make of the latest figures from INVOLVE and the Health Research Authority (HRA) showing which funders are best at public involvement in research? In a re-run of an joint-exercise first done in 2010, INVOLVE and the HRA looked at the public involvement component of over 1100 research applications that went before research ethics... Continue Reading →
Less haste and more speed is better for research and better for patients
The Government has today announced an Innovative Medicines and MedTech Review, beginning in early 2015. The Minister for Life Sciences, George Freeman MP, has set out a bold vision for cutting drastically the time it takes to develop and give patients access to new medicines and innovation. This news release lays out the basic aims... Continue Reading →
Health Research Authority (HRA) draft guidance on sharing trial results with research participants and more!
The Health Research Authority (HRA) is to be congratulated on its draft guidance to researchers on providing information to participants at the end of the study. The guidance is open for consultation until the end of this month.It takes a common-sense approach to sharing trial results with study participants. I challenge any researcher not to find... Continue Reading →
Health Research Authority looks for good practice in identifying research participants – survey.
Excuse my laziness but it is Saturday. Here's a copy of a press release put out by the a Health Research Authority (HRA) on Wednesday about a call (in essence, a survey) they are doing for good practice in identifying potential participants for research studies. The results of the work will be published by HRA... Continue Reading →
Do I detect a slight fumble of the ball in today’s Commons Select Committee report on clinical trials?
Not for the first time I was awake at 3am this morning. Cup of tea in hand, watching American football. It's amazing how those players keep the ball when so many other players are piling on top of them. Rarely do you see the thing break free. They must practice for hours.... The House of Commons... Continue Reading →
@SDenegri presentations about the public and health research from Leicester, HSRN and Leeds
I'm always very chuffed when people ask for a copy of my presentations after a talk. Usually I am quite good at emailing them to people or asking the organisers to send them round. Anyway, I have done a lot of meetings lately and thought I would post here copies of my slides from the... Continue Reading →
Research transparency: HRA shows a cool head where others fear to tread
The public might just be on the verge of getting the sort of health research regulator they need and deserve. Yesterday the Health Research Authority (HRA) published its plans for promoting transparency around publication of health research findings. Of particular note from a public and patient perspective is its proposal to: 'set standards and issue... Continue Reading →
A bit of a public involvement mash-up including that idea for an NHS Civil Society Assembly
So here's my unsubstantiated personal theory. It is that one of the root causes of the problems besetting today's NHS' is our failure to pay proper heed to the growing crisis in accountability and responsibility that has been a feature of our increasingly complex health system over the last seventy years. From almost the day... Continue Reading →
‘Best left alone’ is not the motto we want for our health regulators
It being half-term you can never have enough travel games on hand. Current favourites for me are: a) guessing who will be the new Director of the Wellcome Trust and; b) thinking of a name for the body created if you merged all the current Research Councils into one. I did apply for the former... Continue Reading →
Getting back into the (regulatory) swing…..
After two weeks away, this feels like the proverbial two minutes from time substitution that players do when coming back from injury. Just to be sure we remember which goal we are attacking, mind. I have a feeling that 2013 will very much be a year about how we regulate health research in the future. More... Continue Reading →
