Tag: PPI grants

What’s New and Promising in Neuropathic Pain Research? Involving Patients in Research Co-Design

This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series PPI Awards: Round 4 Reports

In conversation with: Donna Kennedy, Clinical Specialist Hand Therapy (Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust) and Postdoctoral Research Fellow (NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre). Working in collaboration with Prof. Andrew Rice, Dr Harriet Kemp and Dr Whitney Scott within the Pain Research Group led by Prof. Andrew Rice.

What did you do?

The Pain Research Group investigates neuropathic pain in the context of infectious diseases, diabetes and nerve trauma. We undertake patient profiling studies, which include cognitive, psychological and physical measures such as skin biopsies and quantitative sensory testing.

The Young People in Psych Research Group: helping scientists iMAGine better research for self-harm

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series PPI Awards: Round 4 Reports

In conversation with: Dr Martina Di Simplicio, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry, and Rachel Rodrigues, PhD Student. Working within the Mood Instability Research Group, Centre for Psychiatry, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London.

What did you do?

Our research project called iMAGine looks at the psychological processes contributing to maintenance of self-harm behaviour in young people, including whether aspects of ‘reward’ or positive reinforcement underlie self-harm. From the very start of the study, we’ve been collaborating with a group of six young people (17 to 25-year-olds) with and without experience of self-harm.

Public involvement in prematurity research at Imperial Women’s Health Research Centre

This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series PPI Awards: Round 4 Reports

In conversation with: Lynne Sykes, Clinical Lecturer; Rachel Akers, Senior Research Midwife; and Malko Adan, Senior Research Midwife

Working within: Prematurity Research, Women’s Health Research Centre at Imperial Institute of Reproductive & Developmental Biology

What did you do?

We held face-to-face meetings with patients who took part in our preterm research project meetings to garner acceptability and opinions for new research techniques. We chose this method because it allowed our patients to share their experiences with others and catch up with the research team, who they saw for a large amount of time during their pregnancy.

Involving women in the design of maternal cardiovascular research

This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series PPI Awards: Round 4 Reports

In conversation with: Olive Adams, Research Midwife

Working within: Centre for Fetal Care (NIHR Imperial BRC Theme: Maternity Cardiovascular)

What did you do?

Our research department, the Centre for Fetal Care, undertakes studies on maternal cardiovascular health and other conditions in pregnancy at Imperial and with European collaborators.

We formed a group of women who were either affected by conditions addressed in our research or who were in the pre-conception period (the weeks or months when a woman or couple decides to have a child).

Case study #16: Frontiers in Cystinuria Research – Learning from patient experience to inform precision medicine research

Dr Toby Athersuch, Lecturer, Phenome Centre

‘Frontiers in Cystinuria Research’ was an event held last October at Imperial College London. It involved people affected by cystinuria in discussions with expert medical professionals and academic researchers active in this area. The aim of the event was to capture some of these rich patient experiences to inform future precision medicine research, while simultaneously providing a forum for patients to share their insight. We feel that these types of event are important enablers of patient-directed research development, particularly relevant in the context of rare metabolic diseases, where patient input and advocacy is often underrepresented.

Case study #15: ‘MatImms’ involve women in research addressing low maternal vaccination uptake

By Dr Helen Skirrow, Speciality Registrar, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London Public Health Medicine Specialist Training Program; Honorary Clinical Research Fellow, School of Public Health, Imperial College London; MatImms Research Team, International Centre Child Health, Paediatrics, School of Medicine.

Our multi-disciplinary research team of midwives, doctors and scientists investigates vaccination in pregnancy (the MatImms project) and is led by Professor Beate Kampmann. MatImms encourages vaccination in pregnancy to protect newborn babies from preventable infections. In the laboratory, MatImms studies the impact of vaccines on immunity in mothers and babies. In order to connect with pregnant women, we developed the MatImms Smartphone App to improve vaccine information available, enabling pregnant women and their support networks to make informed choices.

Case Study #10: An interactive PPIE workshop on kidney transplant rejection

We are delighted to announce the NIHR Imperial BRC PPI Grant Scheme is now open until Friday 19 October 2018, 5pm. The purpose of this grant scheme is to support motivated researchers and their teams to undertake meaningful and impactful public and patient involvement that will shape their research and enhance the translation of biomedical research from bench to bedside. As this is our fourth round of funding, we spoke with Dr Candice Roufosse, Senior Clinical Lecturer at the Centre for Inflammatory Diseases about how winning a PPI Grant helped improve their research.

Case Study #9: Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Patient Involvement in Research Day #IBDPRD

Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis are the two main forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and affect more than 300,000 people in the UK. To mark world IBD day, Kapil Sahnan (surgical trainee) and Mark Samaan (gastroenterology trainee) organised and ran a National Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Research Day for patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

They worked with a team of PPI experts including: Ailsa Hart (UK PPI lead for Gastroenterology), Christine Norton (Professor of Nursing), Nicola Fearnhead (President in waiting of the ACPGBI), Phil Tozer (an academic colorectal surgeon) and two fantastic expert patients (Azmina Verjee and Sue Blackwell).

Case study #7: Parents with experience of preterm birth help shape Imperial research

In conversation with: Dr Lynne Sykes, Academic Clinical Lecturer Working within: Institute of Reproductive & Developmental Biology

What did you do?

With the help of the NIHR Imperial BRC PPI award, we were able to set up a Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) group to help shape our preterm birth research at Imperial. The funding enabled us to invite 10–15 participants to three PPI meetings over a course of 12 months. We now have an established group with around seven core members and one nominated representative. The meetings have been a great way to present, and get feedback, on our current and future research plans.