Medical Outreach and Engagement
START
Schools Teaching Awareness of Randomised Trials
Clinicians Engaging With The Community T
Name of programme: START Schools Teaching Awareness of Randomised Trials Name of coordinator: Dr Sandra Galvin School/College: Health Research Board (HRB) - Trials Methodology Research Network (TMRN), School of Nursing & Midwifery, College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences Public/community targeted: Primary school students and their teachers Reach: National Campaign Type of activity run: This was a national primary schools competition. Teachers and students were asked to identify a suitable research question they could answer scientifically using the information provided. The purpose of this competition is to help students become aware of the clinical trial process, rather than answering a ground breaking question. Schools picked a simple, easy to answer question, and used the proper steps of a clinical trial to answer it. Special features: An outreach competition. The aim was to mark International Clinical Trials Day (20 May) by creating awareness of clinical trials among the younger members of our community.
Funding : HRB with remainder of costs covered by HRB-TMRN Who volunteers? Staff of the HRB-TMRN (School of Nursing and Midwifery), PhD students of the HRB-TMRN nationally (TCD, UCC, NUIG) and undergraduate students (paid volunteers from nursing and midwifery) Size of the team: HRB-TRMN, approximately 10 members involved in this project. How long has the programme been established? Started in 2016, this will launch again for 2017. Impact: Currently assessing impact. This campaign was covered by RTÉ News 2 Day and TG4 Nuacht as well as Flirt FM, Galway Bay FM and the Irish Times. We have been contacted by research groups in Spain and Australia who would like to replicate this initiative. The campaign was also extensively promoted on social media.
he HRB Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland (CTNI) is a collaborative partnership between NUI Galway, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI), the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) and Queen’s University Belfast and is led by NUI Galway’s Professor Andrew Murphy. Working closely with the public, patients and with GPs and other healthcare professionals, the Network aims to improve individual patient health and health care by conducting high quality randomised trials in Irish primary care, addressing important and common problems. A key focus of the Network is the involvement of members of the public throughout the research process – not as research participants, but as partners and advisors, helping to shape and guide the research. We have set up a Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) group, consisting of ten people drawn from the local community in county Galway. The members represent a broad, cross-section of the population, with a mix of gender, age, occupation, and health status, all of whom have their own history of life, of major or minor illnesses and of involvement with the healthcare system. The group meet at regular intervals with researchers to discuss research plans and drawing on their own, personal experience to inform their opinion, they give feedback on these plans. For example, the group gives feedback on draft protocols, gives advice on proposed recruitment strategies, comments on the language used in patient-focused study materials and contributes to the development of study data collection tools. The contribution of the group helps the researchers to conduct research that is more participant-friendly, improves communication with participants throughout the research process and ultimately leads to better research.
Photo: Carmel Geoghegan, a member of the PPI group CKI Magazine 2016-2017 www.nuigalway.ie/cki | 15