Research and Innovation newsletter - Autumn Edition
Research & Innovation Department at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Translating research excellence into world-class care
This edition highlights a number of exciting high profile events and accomplishments that have taken place in Research and Innovation at LTHT, with local, national and international opportunities, collaborations and partnerships all coming through in the success stories we have to share.
It is encouraging and exciting to see the hard work by so many of our colleagues in R&I leading to such great achievements, and testament to our ongoing commitment in upholding the culture of research we have at the Trust.
Leeds BRC & NHS England Host Industry-Clinical Event Opened by Prof Sir Chris Whitty
The NIHR Leeds Biomedical Research Centre with NHS England hosted an event opened by Professor Sir Chris Whitty, bringing together industry and clinical leaders to collaborate on antimicrobial resistance and infection diagnostics.
Chief Medical Officer for England Professor Sir Chris Whitty, and Angela Douglas, outgoing Deputy Chief Scientific Officer for NHS England, opened the conference on 3rd October by setting the scene for the day, remarking on the immediate importance of appropriate prescription of antibiotics, diagnosis and meeting the modern challenges posed by infection.
The patient voice was recognised as paramount, with Antibiotic Research UK CEO Jonathan Pearce sharing a sobering video of a patient with long-term symptoms due to antibiotic-resistant infection. The account laid bare the stark reality of the physical and psychological toll infection can take on patient well-being.
There were also group and panel discussions on how best to tackle infections and addressing any of the deficits that exist between clinical need and industry supply output.
The event was a great success in providing a unique space for industry and clinical research representatives to discuss their needs and priorities, so much so that further cross-sector conferences will likely continue in the future.
Biomedical Research Centre Launches with £20.4m of Funding
The NIHR Leeds Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) officially launched recently with £20.4m funding to expand its portfolio of medical research. This will significantly strengthen the centre’s mandate for improving care for patients, with new research into numerous medical conditions.
The launch was celebrated with an event on 4th October, with presentations and talks from representatives from the expanded research areas, as well as partners representing the diversity of cooperative partnerships around the BRC, including across the Universities of Leeds and York.
Having previously operated with a sole research ‘theme’ of Musculoskeletal Disease, Leeds BRC has now expanded to six themes including: Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection, Cardiometabolic Disease, Haematology, Pathology and Surgical Technologies.
The BRC is part of a national network of centres funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), aimed at uniting local academia and NHS resources to transform research into real world treatment improving patient outcomes.
Innovation Pop Up Celebrates Second Birthday
The award-winning Innovation Pop-Up celebrated its 2nd birthday event as part of Leeds Digital Festival, with attendees and VIPs locally and nationally from technology, government, and healthcare joining for a showcase celebration of the Pop Up's work. This included international technology leaders Fujitsu and Intel, and the Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin.
The Innovation Pop-Up based at LGI is home to a growing community of high-tech initiatives, led by LTHT clinicians working with entrepreneurs, transforming the latest advances in research and technology into real world healthcare solutions.
The amazing innovations being developed will enable patients to benefit from faster, more personalised care and are crucial as we continue to transform healthcare for patients in Leeds, Yorkshire and beyond.
Patient with Multiple Sclerosis Trains for 100km Sahara Trek After Completing LTHT Digital Resilience Course
An LTHT patient with multiple sclerosis (MS) is training for a 100km trek across the Sahara Desert after completing a new digital resilience course developed at the Trust.
Jayne Armstrong from Halifax, credits the Ready for MS programme for giving her the confidence to tackle the five-day hike in Morocco, raising funds for the MS Society in Calderdale. Jayne’s story was also recently featured on the BBC’s Look North programme.
Speaking about her experience with the resilience course, Jayne said: “I couldn’t struggle 50 yards down the road. Now, thanks in large part to the programme and the confidence and understanding it gave me, I walk up to 10 miles a day”.
LTHT designed the programme to help people with MS improve their belief in their ability to achieve goals. The trial found the programme may improve work instability and psychological factors such as anxiety and self-belief.
Professor Helen Ford, consultant neurologist and the research lead for neurosciences at the Trust, has overseen the development of the Ready for MS programme which is now being trialled across 10 sites in a wider study to look at how it could be adopted by the NHS.
Centre for HealthTech Innovation: HealthTech Showcase
The Centre for HealthTech Innovation’s Showcase was held on 27th September. The event illustrated the breadth of HealthTech research between LTHT and the University of Leeds through the lens of the Early Career Researcher (ECR) community.
The centre is a great collaboration, accelerating development and adoption of new health technologies, and draws on the expertise of a community of around 150 scientists and clinical academics from across the University and LTHT as part of a wide network of industrial, academic and clinical partners from the Leeds City Region.
The event offered an overview of the Centre’s ECR strategy and the “HealthTech Journeys” of clinical, academic and industry researchers, with a Q&A panel from innovators on HealthTech’s development process.
With plenty of time for networking between delegates from companies, clinic and academia, the day prompted many conversations that will help progress more exciting HealthTech developments.
Patient Views Gathered on using AI in Radiology
As part of an Innovate UK-funded project, a professional clinical board and patient engagement group have been formed on Artificial intelligence (AI).
The group considers ethical, legal and privacy issues around AI-derived software in radiology.
AI has the potential to revolutionise workflow, reduce risk and improve diagnosis, but there is also a recognised need to better understand patient views around using AI- derived software.
Issues raised by the PPIE group included:
Patient representatives also attended a clinical priority-setting workshop and will join a multi-disciplinary "hackathon" developing tools to improve the communication of results to patients.
LTHT Contributes Radiology Images to the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database (NCCID)
LTHT has contributed radiology images and data to the National COVID-19 Chest Imaging Database (NCCID), a data archive designed to support better understanding of COVID-19 and development of technology to improve care for hospitalised patients.
This data has been published in Nature Scientific Reports Delineating COVID-19 subgroups using routine clinical data identifies distinct in-hospital outcomes. The paper uses modelling to identify three COVID-19 subtypes and introduces disease severity stages; both methods were predictive of distinct risks of in-hospital mortality or escalation of treatment.
Data extraction was led by Atif Rabani from Research Data and Informatics Team (R- DIT) with support from Dr Russell Frood and Professor Andrew Scarsbrook of Radiology.
R-DIT also supported the submission of the application for data by Consultant Cardiothoracic Radiologist Dr Annette Johnstone.
NPIC and Visiopharm Collaborate to Advance AI in Pathology
The National Pathology Imaging Co-operative (NPIC) have announced with AI company Visiopharm a collaboration to support the standardisation of Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) staining.
H&E is used to stain pathology tissue slides, but differing techniques between labs can cause a large amount of variation in staining, throwing off computers' ability to read samples.
NPIC and Visiopharm are developing an innovative solution that brings together ‘Tango’, NPIC’s tissue-mimicking stain assessment slide, and a fully automated image analysis algorithm developed by Visiopharm.
This a big step towards the ultimate goal of having consistent data so AI can be used to improve patient care and speed up cancer diagnosis.
£250K NIHR Grant Awarded for Post-Surgical Stud
We are happy to share consultant Dr Caroline Thomas has been awarded a large NIHR grant. The funds worth £250K will go towards researching a trial using ibuprofen after major bowel resection.
The co-applicant team are multi-disciplinary, including Trust acute pain specialist nurse Katie Duffy. This supports an excellent opportunity for research as part of our 7 Commitments principles and raises the profile of LTHT as a lead perioperative research centre!
Julie Evans Retiring
Our amazing Head of Nursing for Research and Innovation, Julie Evans, will be retiring on 21st December. Julie has been instrumental in integrating the research delivery workforce into the Research and Innovation Department; we will be celebrating Julie’s many and varied achievements during her career. We will miss her, and wish her all the best in her retirement.
Sarah Wetherop highly commended by NIHR Awards
Congratulations to Sarah Crockett-Wetherop a research nurse who received recognition for her work in patient experience at the Clinical Research Network (CRN) Yorkshire and Humber Awards 2023.
Research teams from across Yorkshire and Humber came together in Leeds to celebrate healthcare research achievements, and Sarah Crockett-Wetherop from the Oncology GI team at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust came highly commended in the 'Best Patient Experience' category.
Over 140 nominations were received across 12 categories, showcasing the best in research and innovation, with winners, and those recognised as highly commended, receiving awards or certificates at the event.
NIHR BioResource Centre Staff Member's Win on BBC Mastermind
George Twigg, Clinical Trials Coordinator with the NIHR BioResource Centre Leeds, recently appeared on BBC’s Mastermind, finishing in first place and scoring 23 points. He chose Anglo-Saxon England as his specialist subject, learning hundreds of facts about the years 410-1066. George is a keen quizzer, playing for a team in Pontefract, and has also appeared on University Challenge and Only Connect.
Speaking about his experience George said: “I’d been on a couple of TV quiz shows before, but always in a team, so it was fun to test myself as an individual participant. I’m glad I won my heat, though the result was closer than I’d have liked!”
The episode is available on BBC iPlayer until September 2024 at the below link.
Research Opportunity for Children and Young People
The Leeds Young Research Owls (LYRO), a group of children and young people aged 11-18 who learn about research in health, are looking for volunteers. Some Owls are patients at Leeds Children’s Hospital and others have joined the group from local schools and colleges.
The group meet online or in person every other month to learn about cutting edge research projects. LYRO have helped their researchers since 2019 by sharing their unique perspectives with researchers about the design and delivery of projects.
If you know anyone who may be interested in science, aspiring to work in healthcare, or simply want to help improve care, then please contact:
Heather Rostron - heatherrostron@nhs.net.