Motif
Order

A case for and against COVID-19 vaccine boosters

  • 14 September 2021
In a recent Lancet Viewpoint opinion piece, a group of authors including NIHR BRC’s Jonathan Sterne and Julian Higgins emphasize that while the idea of further reducing the number of COVID-19 cases caused by the highly transmissible delta variant by enhancing immunity in vaccinated people is appealing, any decision…

Introducing Hard Evidence: a performance piece about survivors of domestic abuse and public involvement in research

  • 14 September 2021
Hard Evidence, a new production developed in collaboration with Acta Theatre, shines light on how getting involved with research empowered women who have experienced domestic abuse to support others in a similar situation. Written over Zoom in the early months of 2021, the performance follows Jan, a survivor of domestic…

Co-creating communications with patient and public groups

  • 6 September 2021
Taking a ‘less is more’ approach and not overwhelming audiences with too much information is the most effective approach to developing patient and public involvement (PPI) recruitment materials, according to public contributors. Involving patient and public groups in the development of health research is important to ensure that it is…

Analysing metabolomics to improve the prediction of pregnancy-related disorders

  • 17 August 2021
Using analytical methods such as mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to detect the presence of certain metabolites – the molecules produced during cell processes – could improve how we predict certain pregnancy-related disorders. A recent study, part funded by the NIHR Bristol BRC, discovered that profiling in…

Working collaboratively with public groups to support safe and transparent surgical innovation

  • 5 August 2021
The Surgical Innovation team are one step closer to developing a list of baseline information, known as a core information set, to guide consultation discussions following a milestone multi-stakeholder meeting last month. This list will ensure NHS patients being offered new procedures and devices receive more transparent and consistent information…

Exploring trends in recording anxiety symptoms in UK primary care

  • 4 August 2021
The way GPs record anxiety in patient records could be leading to a reduction in formal anxiety diagnoses, new research from the University of Bristol has found. Anxiety disorders are common in the UK, with the level of anxiety symptoms being recorded by GPs increasing between 1998 and 2008. However,…

Long COVID in children poorly understood by doctors

  • 22 July 2021
The clinical definition of long COVID in children is at present very limited and poorly understood by doctors, according to a new report published today [21 July]. The report also found that symptoms typically associated with long COVID were having a significant physical and psychological impact on children’s day-to-day lives.

Making innovations in surgery safer

  • 13 July 2021
A study to help surgical innovations be developed more safely and efficiently has published a ‘core outcome set’ for new surgical techniques and devices in the Annals of Surgery. The COHESIVE study, led by National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funded researchers at the University of Bristol, devised the…

Interleukin-6 antagonists improve outcomes in hospitalised COVID-19 patients

  • 6 July 2021
Findings from a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) have prompted new World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations to use interleukin-6 antagonists in patients with severe or critical COVID-19 along with corticosteroids. A new analysis of 27 randomised trials involving nearly 11,000 patients…