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NIHR awards £4m to Birmingham Clinical Research Facility to enhance the delivery of research

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

The Birmingham NIHR Clinical Research Facility (CRF) has been awarded £4 million from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

This funding is part of a total investment of £96 million that has been awarded to NHS organisations across England, to enhance the delivery of research through improving research facilities for patients across the NHS, helping teams to find new ways to prevent and treat diseases.

The Birmingham NIHR CRF is a collaboration between three BHP members – University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB), Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust (BWC) and the University of Birmingham (UoB).

In Birmingham, new equipment will enable the delivery of innovative health technology services, including a range of cell and gene therapies requiring specialist pharmacy facilities. For example, onsite isolators will support preparation within the research facilities, speeding up the delivery of CAR-T trials for patients with haematology (blood) cancers, as well as trials into cancer vaccines for patients with a variety of solid tumour cancers.

The funding will also provide new laboratory equipment, essential for storing samples from patients recruited to metabolic research studies. This will support researchers with ground breaking work in the prevention, treatment and management of metabolic disease for adults and children across Birmingham.

The bid was led by Jo Gray, NIHR Birmingham Clinical Research Facility Clinical Manager, who said: “This successful bid for equipment and upgrades to our facility is fantastic and will make such a difference to patients and research teams across all partner sites.

“We have ambitious plans in place to upgrade existing equipment, as well as increase our ability to support new research across the sites. New equipment will include a paediatric ‘peapod’, which measures body composition and growth in premature born infants, and biosafety cabinets, which provide an enclosed ventilated space for drug preparation.

“Our portfolio of gastrointestinal (GI) and respiratory studies will also be able to grow with the addition of new endoscopy equipment. One of the key GI trials to benefit will be the INCEPTION clinic for patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). This trial aims to improve diagnosis and prognosis, and make more informed decisions on IBD treatment through biomarker discovery and implementation, by understanding more about how different microbiomes affect gut and oral immune responses.”

Professor Lorraine Harper, NIHR Birmingham Clinical Research Facility Programme Director, added: “We are tremendously proud that our hospitals have been selected for this award from the NIHR to improve the delivery of research in our local population. The award, which builds on existing clinical-academic collaborations facilitated by Birmingham Health Partners, will benefit our adult and paediatric patients, improving their access to new therapies and treatments, which can potentially be life-changing.”

Dr. Jan Idkowiak, NIHR Birmingham Clinical Research Facility Director (BWC), said: “This is very exciting. This award allows us to expand our ability to deliver cutting-edge clinical research beyond the Children’s Hospital, as it will enable us to include pregnant women and their children at the Women’s Hospital. This will be a huge benefit for our patients and will offer great opportunities to develop new therapies.”  

Professor Philip Newsome, Director of the NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), commented: “This is fantastic news for both the CRF and for the organisations that work with them, like the Birmingham BRC. The CRF has been a key partner in delivering many of our experimental research studies, and we collaborate closely on our training, patient and public involvement, and equality, diversity and inclusion programmes too. We are looking forward to continuing working together to deliver patient benefit.”

Uniting health and data science in the Midlands to positively impact healthcare

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

Further funding has been awarded for BHP founder-member the University of Birmingham to host the Health Data Research UK (HDRUK) Midlands Regional Network for five more years.

HDRUK Midlands aims to improve health through uniting healthcare and data science communities across the Midlands. These communities are committed to working together to improve the quality of health-related data, which includes developing new tools and technologies that equip our frontline healthcare staff to deliver excellent care.

Following recent funding success and as part of its strategy to enhance and grow an inclusive health data community, HDRUK Midlands are launching a new Regional Community Platform, which will bring together clinicians, academics, data scientists, technologies and members of the public.

Professor Alastair Denniston, of the University of Birmingham said: “We’re delighted that the HDRUK Midlands Region Network has been funded for a further five years. This endorsement to continue our work will allow us to expand the network further, and to upskill and improve the knowledge and capabilities of our health and data communities, by enabling us all to learn from each other.”

The growing network is currently made up of 19 organisations, who between them are leading on over 90 projects. Since its inception, 145 people have signed up to the Community, showcasing their skills and interests with the intention of fostering collaborative working. The HDR UK Midlands Regional Community welcoming new members and is open to anyone who has an interest in health data science, including patients and members of the public.

“The recently launched community platform will allow colleagues to connect with others and find experts with a particular skill or interest across the region. We believe our people are our greatest asset and the new Community Platform will help us to make the most of our people.” Dr Fiona Pearce, University of Nottingham.

Original consortium partners include the host institution, the University of Birmingham, its fellow BHP member University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, as well as the Universities of Nottingham, Leicester, and Warwick, with new partners being welcome to join as the network moves into its next phase.

Second city’s strategic health alliance welcomes mental health trust as new member

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Birmingham Health Partners, Mental health.

Birmingham Health Partners has underlined its commitment to delivering research that enhances health and wellbeing by welcoming Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (BSMHFT) as its fifth NHS member.

BSMHFT was founded in 2003 and provides a wide range of inpatient, community and specialist mental health services – including early intervention and rehabilitation – and is one of the largest mental health trusts in the country with a workforce of around 4,000 across 50 sites. With a national and international reputation for research, BSMHFT maintains strong academic links with a number of prestigious institutions including BHP members the University of Birmingham and Aston University, and its portfolio includes studies focused on dementia, eating disorders, addictions, mood disorders and perinatal mental health.

Roisin Fallon Williams, Chief Executive of BSMHFT, commented: “My colleagues and I welcome the opportunities that membership of Birmingham Health Partners will provide to both our service users and our Trust, through the benefits of continued research and innovation in provision of mental health care in our region. We believe passionately that research is complementary to service delivery, rather than surplus to it, and BHP’s ethos of embedding research into all stages of clinical care is a perfect fit with our own culture.”

Professor David Adams, Director of BHP, commented: “BHP’s mission is to work collaboratively to ensure our community are ‘born well, live well, and die well’. The importance of mental health and wellbeing to this vision cannot be overstated, and neither can the intrinsic link between physical and mental health be overlooked. BSMHFT is already a long-term partner in many of the mental health studies and trials run across BHP, and so their formal inclusion in our partnership is a natural extension of our collaborations to date.”

BHP’s membership now comprises: the University of Birmingham; Aston University; Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust; Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust; the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust; University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust; and the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network.

West Midlands Innovation Accelerator to Spark Growth and Innovation

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

The Universities of Birmingham and Aston – both BHP members – are to participate in the West Midlands Innovation Accelerator announced this week by the West Midlands Combined Authority.

Designed to bolster the region’s innovation and R&D capability, as well as sparking commercial growth and investment, the Innovation Accelerator will receive a share of a new £100m fund from Innovate UK. This fund, first announced in the Government’s 2022 Levelling up White Paper, will be divided across three regional Innovation Accelerators over the next two years.

Aims of the Innovation Accelerator include accelerating the region’s engineering research & development, boosting inward investment, and reinforcing the West Midlands’ position at the frontier of the UK innovation revolution by enabling businesses to develop new products, processes and services.

The West Midlands Innovation Board has targeted investment on five projects enabling new solutions around Medical and Clean Technologies.

The University of Birmingham is leading the 6D Innovation Accelerator project, bringing together key stakeholders (universities, hospitals, industry and government-funded ‘Catapults’ for manufacturing innovation) to supercharge the region’s ability to accelerate new health and medical technologies. Its aim is to deliver a streamlined programme to help companies navigate “pinch-points” in the process of medical translation.

Professor Liam Grover, of the University of Birmingham’s Healthcare Technologies Institute, said: “Taking health and medical technologies into the market place can be a minefield of regulatory, funding and management issues. We aim to develop clear processes that will help companies navigate the obstacles and deliver marketable products that will enhance people’s lives.”

The 6Ds are:

      • Diagnosis of company needs
      • Definition of major NHS and industry-based challenges to target
      • Development and refinement of prototype products
      • Deployment of innovation in real-world NHS settings
      • Diversification of supply chains, skills and services
      • Demonstration of significant economic and health benefits for our region

The University is also playing a key role in a second project, Digital Innovation Transformative Change (DIATOMIC), led by Connected Places Catapult, the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport and place leadership. Partners include Aston University, Birmingham City Council, Birmingham City University, Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce.

DIATOMIC will accelerate place-based innovation in the West Midlands. Harnessing the region’s existing international relationships and through a series of targeted initiatives, it will focus on growing the region’s clean tech, health tech and med tech markets.

Through DIATOMIC civic leaders will be able to set innovation challenges, support local SMEs to respond and benefit the community through the UK’s first inclusive innovation hub. It will also promote the use of data to enable better place-based decision making and develop an impact assessment toolkit.

Announcing the Innovation Accelerator, Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, and chair of the WMCA, said: “I’m delighted to see the Innovation Accelerator fund finally land in our region which will unlock a further £150m of private sector co-investment. The funding will inject momentum into the delivery of the West Midlands Plan for Growth which sets out how we will unlock hundreds of thousands of new jobs and be home to major global companies in this decade.

“One of my key mayoral missions is to restore our status as the fastest growing region outside of London – just as we were pre-pandemic. Innovation is central to achieving that mission.

“We’re already a leading region for UK innovation when it comes to automotive and aerospace – with every £1 of Government spending for Research & Development translating in to £4 of business investment. This latest news will help us to build on our progress to date – with Government’s forthcoming Trailblazer Devolution Deal and proposed programme of Investment Zones set to usher in exciting times ahead.”

Minister of State for Science Research & Innovation at DSIT George Freeman said:  “Through Record investment in our UK science, technology & innovation sectors, the Innovation Economy is creating new career opportunities in the campuses, clusters & companies of tomorrow.

“That’s why UKRI is putting clusters at the heart of its of its £25bn budget up to 2025, and why our £100m Innovation Accelerator Program provides £33m each to 3 emerging clusters to attract industrial co-investment and become major, globally competitive centres for research and innovation.

“The West Midlands Cluster is becoming a world class hub of R+D in med tech and clean tech.

“I’m delighted that local leaders have come together to use our £33m to launch such exciting programs with industry and Universities in this exciting area.”

Learning from the pandemic: Birmingham Health Partners publishes rapid evaluation study of remote outpatient appointments

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

Birmingham Health Partners (BHP), the second city’s University-NHS partnership, has called for greater engagement with clinicians and a deeper understanding of patient experience when considering the continued use of remote outpatient appointments post-Covid.

A new report, ‘Learning from the pandemic shift of outpatient services to a remote footing: a rapid evaluation study’, has been published by researchers and clinicians from across the three founding members of BHP (University of Birmingham, Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust), and offers advice about how remote outpatient consultations might best be used as we ‘return to normal’.  The authors set out a suggested approach to making decisions about when a remote outpatient consultation might be appropriate or not; explore the issues facing patients, carers and health professionals; and point to the many operational issues that need to be addressed as new care pathways that embrace both remote and in-person consulting are developed.

The report was co-ordinated by Birmingham Health Partners’ new Rapid Evaluation Service and comprised interviews with a range of BHP staff involved in remote consultations as well as health data gathered on the use of these appointments across both Trusts, and a pragmatic literature review.

Lead author Dr Richard Lewis, Senior Associate at the University of Birmingham’s Health Services Management Centre commented: “While the shift from face-to-face to remote consultations occurred quickly in both Trusts – reaching around half of all consultations at its peak – the proportion of remote consultations has, to some extent, fallen back from pandemic lockdown levels.  This research is intended to inform clinicians and managers as they plan how best to organise outpatient services beyond the pandemic, with a mix of in-person and remote consultation offers.  There is a risk of missing a unique opportunity to draw on experience of sudden and unplanned changes in outpatient consultations to apply these lessons to more sustained reform of how at least some appointments might be delivered longer term.”

Matt Boazman, Interim Chief Executive of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, added: “This study has demonstrated the significant potential for continued innovation in how we deliver care to patients, particularly across outpatients. It also serves to illustrate the importance of ensuring that we fully consider the views of patients and carers who will have different views on consultation formats depending on their personal circumstances. The authors are right to point out the need to pay careful attention to any potential unintended consequences, including the impact on patient-clinician relationships and ensuring that there are robust mechanisms in place to continue to support safeguarding.”

The report can be downloaded here: 

The BHP Rapid Evaluation Service was established in 2022 to provide time-sensitive, formative evidence on innovations in healthcare and capacity building. It carries out rapid and effective service evaluations, often running in parallel with service implementation; helps spread learning to other sites; and helps build local capacity for in-house evaluations.

The Health Services Management Centre (HSMC) at the University of Birmingham is one of the UK’s foremost centres for research, evaluation, teaching and professional development for health and social care organisations. HSMC has established a unique reputation as a ‘critical friend’ of the healthcare community and strives constantly to bridge the gap between research and practice.

Funding boost for Birmingham rare disease research

Written by Louise Stanley on . Posted in Birmingham Health Partners, Clinical trials, Early diagnosis and detection, Experimental medicine.

BHP founder-member the University of Birmingham has been awarded a £500k Pathfinder Award from the medical research charity LifeArc which will support early-stage projects with a focus on translational development in rare diseases.

The successful projects have now been announced following an internal selection process. Research, conducted by the University of Birmingham and working across Birmingham Health Partners, will begin this spring.

Professor Timothy Barrett, Director of the Centre for Rare Disease Studies (CRDS) Birmingham, commented: “I am thrilled that our Centre for Rare Disease Studies at the University of Birmingham has been successful in securing a LifeArc Pathfinder Award. We are working closely with other organisations from Birmingham Health Partners; Birmingham Children’s and Women’s Hospital and University Hospitals Birmingham; to fund a number of impactful translational research projects through the fund. Our uniquely diverse patient population, and strength in partnership ensures that we are in the best possible position to drive forward research in rare diseases to accelerate progress and ultimately improve patients’ lives.”

Around the world, approximately 300 million people are living with a rare disease. A disease is considered rare if it affects less than 1 in 2000 people. Around 80% of rare diseases have a genetic component. They are often chronic, progressive, degenerative and frequently life-threatening with no existing cure.

Owing to the nature of rare disease, small patient populations make research challenging. Lack of scientific knowledge and quality of information on rare diseases can mean that misdiagnosis is common and treatment options may be limited.

The Centre for Rare Disease Studies supports basic and applied research, in order to build a pipeline of translational research from gene discovery to improving the diagnosis, clinical management and treatment of these disorders.

Research projects that will benefit from the Pathfinder Award include:

      • The NEEDED Study (NanoporE Enhances Diagnosis in rarE Disease), led by Dr Hannah Titheradge, which will investigate the effectiveness of a new type of genome sequencing to identify rare diseases.
      • A proof-of concept study, led by Dr Nekisa Zakeri, which aims to develop a novel ‘off-the-shelf’ T cell immunotherapy capable of providing more effective treatment for patients with a rare liver cancer.
      • The CATCH Study (CArbalivefor the Treatment of CHoleastic Disease), led by Dr Palak Trivedi, looks into whether a new medical device can absorb toxins from the gut to reduce inflammation and scarring in primary sclerosing cholangitis; a rare progressive liver disorder for which no medical treatment has been shown to slow disease progression.
      • Dr Richard Tuxworth and Professor Zubair Ahmed, whose research in DNA damage in nerve cells has already resulted in patent applications covering pathways and mechanisms that could provide new therapies for neurological conditions and spinal cord injury, will now work with Professor Andrew Beggs and Dr Chiara Bardella to investigate the potential for one of these pathways (the ATM-Chk-2 pathway) as a basis for therapies to tackle rare neurological conditions that appear early in childhood.
      • Dr Sovan Sarkar’s study aims to improve the health of patients with rare childhood-onset forms of neurodegeneration by correcting the process of autophagy that normally removes undesirable cellular materials which is detrimental to brain cells called neurons.

Dr Hannah Titheradge, a Consultant in Clinical Genetics at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, will investigate the effectiveness of nanopore sequencing – a new type of real time genome sequencing – on a larger group of patients. Previously tested on a very small sample, this new technology showed promise for improving our capability to diagnose rare diseases.

Nanopore sequencing reads more letters in an individual’s genome than the standard sequencing method used to diagnose rare genetic disorders. The NEEDED Study (NanoporE Enhances Diagnosis in rarE Disease) will explore a more detailed approach that could improve the percentage of patients who receive an important genetic diagnosis, which can help those patients and their families face their challenges feeling better informed.

Dr Hannah Titheradge commented: “Receiving a diagnosis can be an uphill challenge for patients with rare diseases and their families. These individuals often wait years for a final diagnosis, having undergone multiple tests and procedures. Having a diagnosis is very important because it helps these individuals better understand their health problems and plan for the future. Some genetic conditions are treatable, and a diagnosis is the first step towards accessing these treatments. We can also understand whether any other family members’ health may be affected. For these reasons, any advance that can be made in improving rare disease diagnostics is invaluable.”

Samira Fakire, Business Manager at LifeArc, added: “We hope that the Pathfinder Award will encourage more researchers to move into the rare disease space and promote the development of a translational culture – pushing more discoveries from the lab into meaningful real-world benefits for patients.”