Research

GP Research

The Acorn Surgery believes in the power of research and plays an active role in many research studies. The practice is part of a network of General Practices in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough that host medical researches on a regular basis. Through recent years, the Practice has had a much higher total recruitment, this is all thanks to our patient engagement, however there is still more you can do to support research. 

We work collaboratively with the NIHR (National Institute for Health Research), CRN (Clinical Research Network) and Commercial Company Partnerships. Anyone registered within the practice could help to shape the future of health care by helping with research projects that you may be invited to participate in.

There are different levels of patient involvement for every research project. Some may be a single survey, or questionnaire, and some might be taking part in a clinical trial and require interviews. Please consider any patient information leaflets you may receive about the research carefully. If you are interested in finding out more about practice research, please feel free to contact a member of the Acorn Research Team.

The Acorn is looking at different ways of engaging with patients with Practice Research. If there is any way you feel we could improve, please provide your feedback through our website. 

Consent

You are completely at liberty to decline any request to take part in a research trial and your full consent will always be obtained before being included in a study. Invitations for studies are sent through the Practice, we will not share your personal details until consent is obtained. All staff involved in practice research are Good Clinical Practice (GCP) trained and aware of informed consent.

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Current Active Research Trials

ACTIVE Brains Study

Aims to help older adults to look after their brain and body health. This study is underway with patients currently taking part.

The DURATION UTI Study

This is a study looking into the effectiveness and quality of treatment of UTI’s in women. Their main goal is to find out the shortest amount of time we need to give antibiotics to effectively treat UTI’s.

If you contact the Practice with a UTI, you may be offered the choice to take part in the study by our team. This is optional and your care will remain the same if you chose not to take part.

For more information, please follow this link: https://www.phctrials.ox.ac.uk/recruiting-trials/duration-uti-trial

CANRISK

A feasibility study of incorporating proactive multifactorial breast cancer risk assessment into General Practice. If you are a woman aged 40-49 years old you may have received an invite to take part in this risk assessment prediction tool. If you would like to find out more, please follow this link https://www.canrisk.org/

The ELSA Study

The ELSA Study is screening children for type 1 diabetes.

Children aged 3-13 years can have a simple finger stick blood test to find out their risk of developing type 1 diabetes in the future.

Currently open to families living in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. If you have a child aged between 3-13 years old, you may receive an SMS message with a link to the research study, where you can chose to sign your child up if you wish.

https://www.elsadiabetes.nhs.uk

JAMS – Injectable Medication Study

This study aims to understand the human and systemic factors involved in the safe, effective and timely use of injectable end-of-life symptom control medications for adults dying at home. You will only be contacted relating to this study if the Research lead GP (Dr Leveritt) has reviewed your record and deemed you potentially eligible.

Coming Soon – The PHASED-IN Trial

More details to follow in the coming months

Virology Surveillance

The Acorn has taken part in the Virology Surveillance study for some years now. Run by the University of Oxford team, this surveillance helps identify trends in the seasonal illness months. If you might be eligible to complete a home swab, the clinician will discuss this with you and send an SMS text where you can sign up and order a home testing kit. This swab will generate a detailed report of the viral illnesses your swab has been tested for an and the results.

To find out more, please follow this link: https://orchid.phc.ox.ac.uk/surveillance

Previous Research Studies

You may have seen or heard from the Acorn about some of these now closed to recruitment studies: 

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Additional Research Studies – without GP Practice involvement

These studies may be of interest – if so, please refer to the details on the poster