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St Mary’s Hospital research nurses join international fight against Coronavirus

The Research Team based at St Mary’s Hospital is contributing to the global effort to fight Coronavirus.

Research nurses from the Isle of Wight NHS Trust Research Department are supporting clinical teams and have started recruitment together with Doctors to two clinical trials, signing up their first patient within two hours of launching.

Sarah Knight, Research Facilitator, said:

“I am proud to say we recruited our first patient within two hours of opening the trial. 

“Our research nurses have a strong commitment to support the trial seven days a week which is out of their normal working hours and we are just grateful to be able to offer patients a potential treatment option through the Recovery trial.”

Treatment trial for patients in hospital
One study (RECOVERY) is a Public Health England priority randomised treatment trial for patients in hospital with suspected or lab positive tested results.  Some of the treatments will be drugs used for other conditions; other new drugs may become available during the trial. This trial is fully support by the Trust’s Clinical Research Department.

The other (ISARIC) is open to all, designed to enable the rapid, co-ordinated clinical investigation of patients with confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus. It will help to maximise the amount of clinical data available to scientists around the world as they search for treatments and a vaccine.

NHS Staff going above and beyond
NHS staff members are on hand seven-days-a-week, going above and beyond their normal working hours, to support and monitor patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 and are taking part in the valuable trials.

The Chief Medical Officers of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, Professor Chris Whitty and the NHS Medical Director, have written to all doctors strongly encouraging participation in the national randomised trials in COVID-19 of which RECOVERY is one. The faster that patients are recruited, the sooner we will get reliable results.

If you would like to know more please contact the [email protected]  or visit the Recovery website at www.recoverytrial.net


News shared by Isle of Wight NHS Trust. Ed

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