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Month: February 2022

Expanded membership signifies ambition for Birmingham Health Partners

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Birmingham Health Partners.

The second city’s University-NHS partnership Birmingham Health Partners (BHP) has expanded its membership by welcoming Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust (SWBH) on board, joining the University of Birmingham, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (BWC), and West Midlands Academic Health Sciences Network (WMAHSN).

SWBH’s inclusion extends BHP’s research and education capabilities, and builds on many years of successful collaboration between the Trust and BHP members, working on studies and trials in specialties as diverse as cancer immunotherapy, rheumatology and heart disease. The Trust provides acute hospitals and community healthcare services to a population of around 500,000 people across Sandwell, City and Rowley Regis Hospitals, as well as operates the Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre, the regional Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Centre, and is the regional base for the National Poisons Information Service. It is also currently developing the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, which will provide acute care services when it opens.

The news also follows publication of a joint report from BHP, Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) which showcased the huge potential of the West Midlands’ life science ecosystem and recommended a joined-up approach to regional leadership and collaboration, in order to tackle the specific health burdens of the West Midlands and beyond.

BHP Director Professor David Adams, who is Head of the University of Birmingham’s College of Medical and Dental Sciences, explained: “Our city and region is home to a concentration of multidisciplinary health and life sciences excellence, and has the potential to strengthen the UK’s position as a world leader in the sector. This can only happen if we work inclusively and collaboratively across the Midlands. With a strong track record of research partnership between BHP’s founder-members and SWBH already in place, it is a natural next step to bring the Trust on board as a full member – demonstrating BHP’s regional leadership, commitment to delivering on our recommendations, and dedication to improving the health of our diverse population.”

Professor David Carruthers, Medical Director of SWBH, commented: “We are delighted to be part of BHP and contribute to the development of research in the West Midlands. This will build on the strong track record that SWBH has in delivering research that involves and is relevant to our patients. This partnership will reinforce our commitment to the development of our staff as well as improving the health of our local population through high quality research opportunities.”

BHP is committed to achieving health and economic impact through harnessing the combined strength and expertise of its members.

New study explores unique approach to treat a rare liver disease

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Clinical trials, Experimental medicine.

A UK research study looking into a new approach to treat primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), a rare disease where the body’s immune attacks its own liver, has been given the green light thanks to vital funding from LifeArc and the patient-led organisation PSC Support.

The FARGO trial, led by Dr Palak Trivedi at the University of Birmingham, will find out if a new treatment can slow PSC progression and improve quality of life for patients.

What is PSC?

PSC is a rare liver disease which affects around 3,600 people in the UK. People can develop the condition at any age, but most commonly those under the age of 40.

In PSC, the body’s immune system attacks the liver, causing inflammation and scarring of the bile ducts. This causes bile to stop flowing properly, and patients experience repeated infections, develop liver failure and, in some cases, cancer. In four out of five people, the body’s immune system will also attack the bowel, leading to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) as well as liver disease. The combination of PSC and IBD can lead to around a third of all patients developing bowel cancer and patients require a colonoscopy every year to screen for it.

Currently, doctors treat PSC by managing symptoms only. We don’t fully understand what causes PSC, and there is no cure. A liver transplant is the only life-saving treatment. Although a very rare disease, PSC accounts for 1 in 10 of all liver transplants in the UK and is now the leading reason for liver transplantation in several European countries.

While it is life saving, liver transplantation is also risky and costly to the NHS. People who have had a transplant must take a cocktail of drugs to prevent their new liver being rejected. PSC can still return in around a third of people who have had a liver transplant.

Imbalance of gut microorganisms – and a new approach

We know that the microbes present in the gut of people with PSC are different to those in people without liver and bowel inflammation. This gut microbe imbalance is linked with many abnormal immune functions, which may drive development of the condition.

In the FARGO study, the research team will find out if taking stools containing natural microbes from the gut of healthy donors, refining it in a lab, and transferring it to the bowel of people with PSC, could reverse the imbalance of gut microorganisms. This treatment is called faecal microbiota transplantation, or FMT. Early research has also shown that it can treat IBD.

Bespoke clinical trial

The Birmingham team, together with teams at the Royal Free London, St Mark’s Hospital, Imperial College London, and Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, will carry out a clinical trial to test this new treatment approach. People with PSC taking part in the study will receive either FMT once a week for eight weeks, or placebo (an inactive FMT equivalent). Each group will continue to receive their usual routine standard of care for their IBD.

The teams will observe both groups for another 40 weeks. The team will then measure how successful the treatment has been in improving liver blood tests, reduce scarring of the liver, lessen the severity of their IBD, and improving symptoms and quality of life.

Dr Palak, who is leading the trial at the NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre, said: “I am delighted that LifeArc has chosen to support such a novel, bespoke and distinctive clinical trial, and to enable us to the necessary ground work needed to better understand how PSC develops and progresses.

“This study will really help us to understand which gut microbes are most important, and how this potential treatment could be scaled up to treat more people.

“Our study will lay the foundation for future work on a larger scale, with a view to making FMT available across the world.

“Should our trial show that FMT works well, PSC Support will be advocating for patients to access FMT as early as possible. We hope this means it will be making a difference to patients within five years after we’ve completed this work.”

LifeArc’s Dr Catriona Crombie said: “Our approach to funding is to work with others, to uncover the potential of promising research that could solve complex healthcare problems that patients face.”

She continued: “We’re delighted to be jointly funding this project with PSC Support, where Dr Trivedi’s team aim to reveal more information about PSC and help to translate this experimental treatment, from lab idea towards the clinic, where it could offer hope to patients with PSC.”

Martine Walmsley, Chair of Trustees at PSC Support, said: “Although we welcome clinical trials that test brand new drugs for PSC, progress is painfully slow. People with PSC don’t have the luxury of time and we must look at quicker medicine development routes.”

£7m funding boost for world-leading surgical research team

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Health inequalities.

A world-leading global surgical research team led from BHP founder member the University of Birmingham has received £7 million of funding to continue its life-saving work in developing countries – finding ways of increasing surgical capacity and preventing post-operative complications.

The NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Global Surgery (NIHR GSU) will focus on training non-surgeons to perform essential hernia operations – hernias posing a major problem with five million patients awaiting surgery in sub-Saharan Africa, stopping young men from providing for their families.

The team will also continue its work in boosting post-operative recovery in Low- and Middle-income Countries (LMICs) – testing simple innovations such as the use of high-dose oxygen, mouthwashes and inhalers.

Researchers are also looking to bring innovation back into the health systems of high-income countries by piloting innovative practices in LMICs – proving their worth ahead of wider roll-out.

Established in 2017, the new NIHR funding will allow the GSU to continue its global research for at least a further five years. The Unit co-ordinates a global network of surgeons that includes over 20,000 clinicians from over 100 countries.

Based at the University of Birmingham, it is co-directed by Professor Dion Morton OBE, Barling Chair of Surgery and Professor Stephen Tabiri, Dean of the Medical School at University for Development Studies in Tamale, Ghana.

Professor Dion Morton commented: “Delivering safe and effective surgical care across the world is one of the greatest challenges facing global health today. Our work impacts the most disadvantaged and vulnerable populations of the world – we are training surgeons in these countries to continue the research drive that is helping to save lives.

“Surgical capacity is a critical issue – a matter of life and death. In many developing countries, there are simply not enough surgeons to deliver the operations that are needed – there are less than 100 general surgeons working in the Benin health service to serve a population of 12 million people.

“Equally, it’s no use performing more operations if patients are at risk of dying from post-operative complications. Simple but effective steps in reducing risks such as surgical site infection (SSI) – the most common post-surgical complication – will be vital in ensuring improved health outcomes for people living in LMICs.”

The GSU’s international cohort studies are open to all collaborators – whether medical students, clinical officers, doctors, nurses or researchers. The team works across clinical disciplines with healthcare professionals, policy makers, epidemiologists, economists, patients and community members.

The GSU provides the tools and infrastructure to help surgeons around the world to sustain the research drive that will increase surgical capacity in LMICs.

A ‘hub and spoke model’ helps the GSU co-ordinate surgical research globally in seven LMICs: India, South Africa, Rwanda, Nigeria, Benin, Ghana and Mexico. Each hub acts as an independent research centre for conducting clinical trials and cohort studies, as well as supporting local and international research training and education. The network consists of more than 100 urban and rural hospitals in these seven countries, some in the most remote parts of the world.

The GSU runs a range of cohort studies, qualitative research and clinical trials aimed at: