The interaction with patients as witnesses and teachers has grown into teaching for research, naive GP’s and practice nurses, and exploring the power of stories to communicate the most difficult aspects of clinical trials.
Many of our group members have personal experience of cardiovascular involvement with or treatment at Barts Health NHS Trust or the William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI). The group’s membership includes two business executives, an educationalist, a research professor and three retired persons. Activities group members have taken part in have included commenting on research grants and posters from a lay perspective and taking an active part in the planning of events such as Barts Health Clinical Trials Day, Let's Talk Hearts (free heart talks we run for the general public) and Barts and Queen Mary Science Festival. Membership of the group is also open to interested lay members of the public as well as patients.
2021 marked the 10th year of the NIHR Barts BRC Public and Patient Advisory Group. Many thanks to all our group members past and present for all your help. If you are interested please contact Jane Batchelor at j.batchelor@qmul.ac.uk
*National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), part of the Department of Health which promotes better understanding of research for patients, public and researchers; The NIHR Barts Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) is one of a number of research centres across the UK funded by the NIHR.
2017May activities included a Let's Talk Hearts talk on Barts Bioresource, an information stand at Barts Health Research Matters evening with staff/volunteers on hand to answer queries and a stand in the Barts clinical area with staff from Barts Bioresource.
201620th May 2016 - International Clinical Trials day event “How to Patients Benefit from Clinical Trials” held at the William Harvey Heart Centre. Speakers were David Collier (William Harvey Heart Centre), Paul Bowers Isaacson (PPAG member) also spoke at Barts and Queen Mary science festival on 6th July 2016) and Steffen Petersen (Centre Lead, Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging).Research Matters evening 24th May 2016 - Perrin Lecture Theatre, Blizard building Whitechapel; exhibition stand was held at this event with the help of staff, patients and public.Let's Talk hearts Is Your Heart Broken? 25th May 3-5pm, 1st floor, conference room, Idea Store Whitechapel (This was a chance to hear Dr Francesca Pugliese and Dr Alexia Rossi give their fascinating imaging talk showing what broken and mended hearts look like.
2015Activities included a mixture of information stalls with staff on hand at each to engage with patients and respond to queries eg Let's Talk Hearts stand and Women's Health exhibition stands held in the new Barts Heart Centre and talks eg an afternoon of research themed talks held in the Derek Willoughby theatre and an entertaining talk by Professor Atholl Johnson "Clinical Trials - Why bother?" at the Clarke Kennedy lecture theatre in Whitechapel.