Hathaway Medical Centre has an established Clinical Research Unit which regularly takes part in UK and international studies. We work in partnership with many leading pharmaceutical companies and academic bodies. We have won awards for recruitment to time and target and also for recruiting the first patient in a study in the UK.
These studies are in a wide variety of disease topics and we regularly recruit to target and beyond. The studies are varied, some may be looking at new methods of administering established drug; some may be looking at new dose regimes to establish a quicker and more effective response to disease management; while others may be comparative studies looking at two or more similar drugs on the market to determine which is the most effective.
Other studies may be looking at totally new medicines to establish effectiveness and the best dose regimes. All the studies taken on by Hathaway Medical Centre are chosen carefully so that the practice as a whole can benefit from the research.
Patients who choose to be involved in the studies receive individual consultations from the research doctors and careful monitoring from the research nurses on a regular basis. Suitable patients for each study are identified through a database search and then approached by the research team.
The overall purpose of research is to constantly update treatments, further medical knowledge and allow new developments in medicines. This also keeps the practice up to date and encourages overall health monitoring of the patient population.
Frequent areas of study for Hathaway Research Unit are blood pressure management, cholesterol control, diabetes, asthma, irritable bowel, osteoarthritis, obesity and urinary problems. Hathaway is mainly engaged with late phase 2B and phase 3 studies, occasionally a phase 4 study.
Hathaway Medical Centre is part of a sentinel network where practice data is used for supporting Surveillance, Quality Improvement, Research and Education. This is all GDPR compliant and it is not possible to share identifiable data. We are currently involved in virological surveillance for Covid-19.
Study Phases
Phase 1 studies – are early studies conducted in hospital on healthy volunteers following animal and cell trials. They are looking at safety and tolerability in a controlled medical environment.
Phase 2A – small cohort groups of volunteers who have the disease under study. They are looking at the safety/tolerability of drug and effectiveness.
Phase 2B are larger scale groups following successful findings in Phase 2A; looking at tolerability, side effects and effectiveness.
Phase 3 studies – large groups of patients with the indicated disease ie diabetes. Looking at efficacy (desired outcome) usually vs another drug, dose finding, tolerability and side effect prior to registration with the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration).
Phase 4 studies are post market studies ie licensed drugs, looking at long term effects and outcomes usually against a comparator.
The Hathaway research team comprises of:
Dr P Grimmer – Principal Investigator
Dr L Wilson – Sub Investigator
Sister Clare Macdonald – Research Lead
Sister Mary Webster – Research Nurse
Mrs Sally Haselton – Administrative Assistant
If you would be interested in more information regarding the work that we do or would be interested in being involved, please contact Clare Macdonald or Mary Webster on 01249 454509
