UCLH a ‘top 10’ Trust for research

UCLH has been placed in the top 10 NHS trusts for clinical research activity in 2018/19.

With 448 research studies recruiting participants (up from 427 last year) and 14,620 study participants (a 28% increase on last year’s figure of 11,418) UCLH is ranked ninth in England according to the National Institute for Health Research in its league table of research-active trusts.

And in terms of commercial research studies UCLH is ranked third, with the second largest increase in commercial studies nationally.

UCLH continues to have a high ranking in terms of total research studies and participants despite the fact that 1 in 4 of its studies in 2018/19 were early phase trials, which only include a small number of participants.

Professor Bryan Williams, Director of Research at UCLH, said: “We are pleased to be recognised as one of the top research hospitals, and to have increased the number of research studies and study participants at UCLH compared with last year.

“We are particularly proud of the cutting edge research we do at UCLH which drives advances in patient care – particularly as our research portfolio has shifted to more early phase trials of cutting edge new treatments for patients with the most life threatening diseases, delivered to patients for the first time in the NHS and sometimes the world, which do not include large numbers of patients but are crucial to the development of new life saving treatments.

“We are also proud to be ranked highly in terms of commercial research studies. This reflects our close partnerships with industry and the fact that the private sector wants to work with UCLH as we can offer top class researchers, facilities and clinical services, and infrastructure.”

In May 2019 UCLH launched Find a Study, its new clinical trials database which can be searched by patients and members of the public who are interested in taking part in a trial at UCLH.