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Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement Newsletter |
February 2025Hello,
Welcome to February's edition of our Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) newsletter! While the weather might be a bit dreary, we've got some exciting news and events to brighten your day. In this issue, we'll be sharing the latest in medicine, health, and care research, along with training and involvement opportunities from across the NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). We are excited to launch a monthly series of free online talks designed to bring health research to life. No science background is required! Join us for “Your Health, Our Research: Short Talks, Big Impact" as we dive into groundbreaking research on everyday health conditions like cancer, arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, liver disease, and heart conditions. Our experts will take you behind the scenes of the incredible work happening at the Birmingham BRC – and break it down in a way that’s easy to understand. Our first talk is coming up on Thursday 3 April and will focus on the latest cancer therapies - see the Events section further down in the newsletter for more details and register now to join us. |
Research involvement opportunities |
Would you like to help steer the Thrombo-STOP trial?What are we doing? The Thrombo-STOP trial will test using a blood thinning medication to prevent blood clots in lung cancer patients. The research team has set up a Trial Steering Committee (TSC) to oversee the study, and they are looking for a patient advocate to join. How can you help?
If you are a patient/carer/family member or member of the public with an interest in lung cancer treatment, you can apply to join the TSC. Ideally, you would commit for the length of the trial (5 years), however this is negotiable.
The TSC will meet at least once per year. These meetings will usually be online but two meetings during the 5-year period will be in-person (in the UK). How will we support you?
Payment for meeting attendance will be £50 per meeting and reasonable travel and subsistence expenses will be reimbursed for in-person meetings.
Contact Sophia Magwaro (S.Magwaro@bham.ac.uk) for more details. |
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Become a public committee member with NIHRWhat are we doing? The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is looking for Public Partners to help us assess funding applications for health and social care research. How can you help?
The NIHR is particularly looking for people with lived experience and/or a good understanding of patient and public involvement in research. This could include experience in reviewing applications, working with researchers, being part of a research study, or serving on committees or advisory groups. How will we support you?
A fee is offered to acknowledge your valuable time and input.
Visit the NIHR website for further information about the roles and how to apply. The deadline for expressing interest is 27 February. If you have any questions, please get in touch at publicrecruitment@nihr.ac.uk. |
Research news from the BRC |
Common antibiotic could treat inflammatory bowel disease, new study findsResults from a BRC-supported clinical trial revealed that an antibiotic used to treat infective diarrhoea may also be effective in treating people who have a specific type of inflammatory bowel disease which develops in the context of an autoimmune liver disease called primary sclerosing cholangitis. |
Study to deepen understanding of rare disabling arthritis affecting childrenYoung people with a rare condition called Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis are taking part in clinical research to better understand the condition, including to find out why some children have more severe arthritis and others get better on first treatment. |
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240-year-old drug could save NHS £100m a year treating common heart rhythm disorderA 240-year-old drug called digoxin could save the NHS at least £100 million each year when treating older patients with a common heart rhythm disorder called atrial fibrillation and heart failure, compared to usual treatment. Find out more about our analysis. |
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Commitment to using new AI tools to advance early cancer detection and preventionResearchers from the BRC will play a role in Cancer Research UK’s recently announced £10 million AI detection programme, which will harness vast quantities of data to increase the number of people diagnosed with cancer at its earliest stages. Find out more about the Cancer Data-Driven Detection programme. |
Research engagement events from the BRC |
PPI Lunchtime Talk26 February | 1.00-1.50pm | Online Join the next PPI Lunchtime Talk with Dr. Magda Skrybant from the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration West Midlands. This session will discuss the PPI-related article “Systematic review on the frequency and quality of reporting patient and public involvement in patient safety research” (Hammoud et al. 2024).
Held on the last Wednesday of each month, these 50-minute online sessions provide an informal space for collective learning around PPI in health and social care research. Open to anyone interested in PPI. To join the mailing list and receive calendar invitations, please complete this form. |
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Fighting cancer from within: Using the body’s own immune system to tackle cancerThursday 3 April | 6-7pm | Online How do immunotherapy drugs work? What are their side effects? We're excited to kick off our monthly series of health research talks, titled "Your health, our research: Short talks, big impact", with a free online talk featuring Dr Claire Palles, Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham. No science background is needed, so feel free to share this with anyone you know that might be interested! Register to join this short talk followed by Q&A to discover how our research is exploring ways to improve treatments for future cancer patients. |
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University Hospitals Birmingham Research ShowcaseTuesday 20 May | Various hospital sites in Birmingham
On International Clinical Trials Day, join us to celebrate the ground-breaking research being done in our region at the Queen Elizabeth and Heartlands hospitals in Birmingham.
Can you be part of this event? Support involvement in health research by being part of a team on a stand and/or helping beforehand with shaping what we show. Last year, we even won a prize thanks to our PPIE members' contribution - photo evidence below! To find out more contact us at brcppie@contacts.bham.ac.uk. |
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University of Birmingham 125th Anniversary celebrationsWe are celebrating the University's 125th Anniversary with an exciting programme of events. Some are already being promoted, and many more activities and events will be added throughout the year so everyone can get involved. A highlight will be a free community festival on campus on Saturday 21 June. |
Can you help us share good practice?Have you been involved in a piece of research that you feel shows good practice for public involvement? Are you willing to share that with us so we can improve how we involve the public in our research? The case studies will be examples of PPIE which will help our researchers to increase their knowledge of good practice, leading to better research outcomes and PPIE practices.
Please let us know if you have something you think we can share, and we are happy to offer support to create it (including offering payment). Just contact us via brcppie@contacts.bham.ac.uk. |
ContactGot any queries or would like to enquire about joining one of our PPIE groups? Get in touch at brcppie@contacts.bham.ac.uk or call 07824841785. |
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