Research studies at our hospitals continue to expand

Clinical research studies at the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire have continued to expand with more than 11,285 patients taking part over the last year.

UHN’s 53-strong research team - working closely with the hospital’s clinical teams across both Kettering and Northampton General Hospitals - have made amazing progress in increasing the number of patients who have agreed to support clinical trials.

KGH has increased research participant numbers from 976 in 2019-2020, to 6,504 in 2025-2026 and NGH has increased from 703 in 2019-2020 to 4,785 in 2025-2026.

KGH Senior Research Nurse, Parizade Raymode, said: “We continue to expand our research work across a number of important clinical specialties - with particularly notable growth in areas such as respiratory disease and diabetes.

“This expansion reflects increasing engagement from our clinical teams, our enhanced research infrastructure, and a growing interest in the studies we can support.

“For chronic respiratory diseases we have supported earlier access to innovative therapies and in diabetes we have focused on long-term condition management, prevention strategies, and novel treatment pathways.

“We are very grateful for the tremendous support our patients have given us by taking part in studies which help us to deliver meaningful and important research.”

Michelle Spinks, Head of Research at Northampton General Hospital said "Our research teams continue to make a significant contribution to improving patient outcomes through high-quality clinical research across a wide range of specialties.

“Recent successes include recruiting more than 100 participants to the Improving Black Health Outcomes (IBHO) study which is helping us to address health inequalities.

“The combined teams at KGH and NGH, recruiting as UHN, have achieved the fifth-highest recruitment rate nationally for the TRACC-C study, a major UK-wide clinical trial evaluating whether blood tests can personalise chemotherapy for colorectal cancer.

“We are grateful to our patients and clinical teams for their invaluable support and contribution to advancing research and improving patient care.”

At NGH, research within maternity services has also expanded following the appointment of Reem Ryanne as Northampton General Hospital’s first dedicated Research Midwife.

Reem said: “I am excited to have been appointed as the first dedicated Research Midwife at NGH. Since joining the team, we have strengthened relationships across departments, increased recruitment to existing studies and significantly expanded our maternity research portfolio.

“Our aim is to ensure that more women and families have opportunities to participate in research that will help improve maternity care and outcomes for future generations.”

KGH has been involved in research across more than 15 specialties with the largest participant numbers in obstetrics and gynaecology (2,948), emergency department (62) cancer (80), gastroenterology (3694), trauma and orthopaedics (284), cardiology (105), Respiratory(14), Rheumatology(34)), Diabetes(38), Hepatology(62) and ITU (112).

NGH has been involved in research across more than 16 specialities with the largest numbers in Reproductive Health and Childbirth (4,185), Cancer (198), Musculoskeletal and Orthopaedics (86), Haematology (86), Critical Care (75), Diabetes, Metabolic and Endocrine (46).

A huge range of important national research has been contributed to by patients involved in the studies across UHN. Some examples are:

• Septic trial: Looking at how antibiotics are used in intensive care for patients admitted with sepsis and how this can be better managed to prevent the risk of antibiotic-resistant infections and how outcomes can be improved for patients and costs kept down
• Colo-prevent study: A cancer research UK funded study looking to determine if drugs or food supplements can reduce the occurrence of pre-cancerous bowel polyps, which in turn could reduce bowel cancer risk.
• TiLLi - A study looking at the best drugs to use to prevent blood clots in people with immobilised legs following accidents or operations
• IMPACT: - Looks at the initial management of pleural infection that can follow pneumonia looking at the best ways of treating patients to prevent long hospital stays
• Odd Socks: Looks at displaced fractures of the legs and ankles in children, how they are treated and what the best outcomes are for children. Looking at surgery compared to more conservative treatments.
• Improving Black Health Outcomes (IBHO) NIHR BioResource - Black communities are significantly underrepresented in genetic studies. This study aims to develop a dedicated research resource that can enable crucial research studies that help us understand the health experiences of individuals from Black communities.
• PACIFIC – Prostate Assessment using Comparative Interventions – Fast MRI and Image-fusion for Cancer - In this study, we want to find out whether we can improve the diagnosis of prostate cancer by comparing a new type of MRI scan with the standard MRI scan and comparing a new way of doing a biopsy.
• PANDA – Primary prevention of maternal anaemia to avoid preterm delivery and other adverse outcomes – We want to find out if taking iron supplements earlier in pregnancy prevent anaemia.

The University Hospital of Northamptonshire’s Director of Research & Innovation, Dr Ajay Verma, said: “I am delighted to see that the culture of research delivery has been fostered at UHN.

“There is good evidence to show that organisations who are research active deliver better care. I am very proud of our research teams – who work tirelessly to recruit patients to studies. We look forward to continuing this important work in the future.”

UHN and UHL Associate Professor and Consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology, Dr Dimitris Papamargaritis, said: “The continued growth of research at UHN is creating new opportunities for patients to access innovative treatments and take part in studies that shape future care.

“Through collaboration with the Leicester Diabetes Centre and the Commercial Research Delivery Centre (CRDC), we are expanding obesity and type 2 diabetes research across Northamptonshire and bringing cutting-edge clinical trials closer to home.”