Millbrook Surgery is proud to participate in primary care research. Patients recruited to research studies often experience improved, more thorough care and gain a sense of contributing to broader societal health improvements. We work closely with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to deliver high quality research opportunities within primary care. To find out more you can visit their website – Homepage | NIHR
Our involvement in medical research means we regularly invite patients and staff to participate in studies, whether through questionnaires, clinical appointments, or targeted research invitations. You may get invited via email/text or letter to participate in a study that is relevant to your condition. Participating in a research study is completely voluntary and if you chose not to participate – your care is in no way affected. If you do participate in a study, you have the right to withdraw at any time.
Current Studies we are involved in:
The ASYMPTOMATIC study aims to find out whether taking a preventer inhaler only when a child, with mild asthma, has symptoms is as effective as taking it every day.
For many years children with asthma have been advised to use inhaled corticosteroids, their preventer inhaler, every day. But new guidelines suggest that children might not need to do this. These new guidelines are based on results from studies in adults, and some teenagers, with asthma. Asthma in adults is different from asthma in children and so we need to do the ASYMPTOMATIC study to provide evidence on whether taking a preventer inhaler only when a child, with mild asthma, has symptoms is as effective as taking it every day.
We will invite children and young people with mild asthma, to take part in ASYMPTOMATIC. This will involve using one of two different approaches to using a preventer inhaler, for 12 months.
- Taking their preventer inhaler every day
- Taking their preventer inhaler only when they have symptoms of asthma
We want to find out whether there is a difference between the two approaches in terms the chances of having an asthma attack, asthma symptoms, hospital admissions, and overall quality of life.
Patients with atrial fibrillation have a higher risk of stroke, blood clots and memory problems in later life that can lead to dementia.
We don’t currently know whether giving blood thinning medication can reduce this risk if given to patients earlier than they would normally receive. The aim of this study is to find out whether these newer blood thinning tablets can prevent serious long-term complications if used earlier in patients with AF.
This trial will randomly assign patients to either continuing their current care (starting blood thinners when they are older) or given a blood thinning medication at a younger age.
If you meet the specific criteria and participate in this study, you will not need extra visits to your doctor. You will be sent a questionnaire every 6 months to complete on your mobile phone or any internet connected device.
Modern treatment has greatly improved quality of life and survival for people with heart failure. However, heart failure is a common contributing factor to acute and chronic kidney disease. Unfortunately, many drugs used to treat heart failure can also impair kidney function. Kidney impairment associated with heart failure drugs is the second most common adverse drug reaction resulting in hospitalisation, and this is the problem which we wish to address. In the computational study we will recruit patients to take part in an adaptive patient centred scheduling system which will automatically determine the frequency of blood monitoring, and it is hoped will improve patient care and prevent hospital admission by spotting and acting on a decline in kidney function early.
Virology
