South London and Maudsley tops NIHR league table again for recruiting research studies

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust have once again topped the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) research recruitment league table, running more research studies (89) than any another other mental health trust in the country. The Trust was also the country’s third highest performing mental health trust in terms of numbers of people recruited into studies.

A large proportion of research activity at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust takes place through the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), a partnership with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London. 

The figures were released by the NIHR Clinical Research Network as part of its annual Research Activity League Table, which details how much clinical research is happening, where, in what types of trusts, and the number of trial participants.  Over the last five years, the NIHR has recruited more than 3.1 million participants into clinical research studies, enabling more patients to benefit from improved care.

Beyond the Maudsley, the figures show that people in south east London are benefitting from more participation in clinical research due to the excellent performance of local NHS organisations.

For the third year in a row more patients and healthy volunteers participated in research at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust than at any other NHS trust in England, and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust saw nearly 21,000 patients involved in clinical research during this period, the fourth highest amount in the country and a 40% increase on the number of people recruited last year. 

The three organisations are the NHS members of King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC), which brings together world-class research, education and clinical practice for the benefit of patients. As part of an AHSC, the trusts all benefit from a highly productive working relationship with their academic partner, King’s College London.

Professor Sir Robert Lechler, Executive Director of King's Health Partners Academic Health Science Centre, says: “Investment in research leads to better and more cost-effective treatments which improves the quality of care for our patients and service users. We know that NHS organisations involved in clinical research achieve better health outcomes, so I am delighted to see all three of our trusts performing so well.”

Both patients and healthy volunteers are encouraged to talk to their healthcare professionals about participating in clinical research, as the latest figures show that a growing number of NHS sites and general practices are taking part in research.  Read more about research at SLaM here.

 


Tags: South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust - Patient and Carer Involvement and Engagement -

By NIHR Maudsley BRC at 2 Aug 2017, 10:55 AM


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