Advancing Asthma Care: Highlights from the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research Annual Conference

This week, NWEH senior management team attended the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research Annual Scientific Meeting. Nawar Bakerly, Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Senior Academic Advisor at NWEH and Julie Millar Director of Clinical Operations and Services attended the conference to present a poster on the use of FARSITE to inform both the design and rapid recruitment of participants into clinical trials.

FARSITE is a proven technology used to identify and recruit over 20,000 participants to date, including the Salford Lung Study and more recently the VICTORION-Spirit study. FARSITE was essential to the VICTORION-Spirit study, informing the development of a pragmatic protocol for rapid recruitment across GP sites at scale as well as helping to inform future implementation strategies across the UK. Julie said “its been great to re-connect with peers to talk about some of the challenges we face. Recruitment is always high if not top of the list, so it was great to be able to exhibit our poster from the recent VICTORION-Spirit study to show FARSITE is not just a recruitment tool it can be used to inform health improvement strategies”.

The Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research is at the forefront of research making a real difference to the lives of those affected by asthma, operating with a single vision of a world where asthma attacks do not happen. The conference brings together internationally respected clinicians and academics from all four UK nations to collaborate on key areas of research to improve the prevention and management of asthma attacks. Nawar said “Its been a very informative day, with lots of discussion around innovation in research with a focus on the importance of impact in research. Impact in research is crucial as it advances knowledge, leads to practical applications, and drives health innovation to benefit the well-being of society”.