Dedicated to improving the healthcare of children around the world, the ‘Institute in the Park’ at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust aims to bring together experts in education, research and technology, to focus on improving the care and understanding of children and their health needs.
The Institute in the Park houses the Clinical Research Division for the Trust, which runs about 170 studies at any one time. It also supports the NIHR Alder Hey Clinical Research Facility (CRF) for studies of new treatments for children, and other specialist research groups including the Paediatric Medicines Research Unit (PMRU). It is also home to the UK’s only Experimental Arthritis Treatment Centre for Children.
Last week was a busy one for the Research Division and the CRF, as they hosted a Research Open Day to celebrate International Clinical Trials Day. Attendees were able to learn about the research taking place, how to get involved and discover more about what the Research team does.
Dr Dan Hawcutt, a Reader in Paediatric Pharmacology at the University of Liverpool and Director of the CRF commented: “The open day was a great success, bringing researchers, clinical teams and families together and showing what we can achieve.”
Another recent success is Alder Hey’s first ever gene therapy trial, delivered on the CRF.
The research teams at Alder Hey are always on the lookout for new projects. They have considerable expertise in all aspects of paediatric studies, from patient and parent engagement, to protocol design, study delivery and clinical interpretation. They are really keen to hear from University research teams, even those who haven’t worked with children before, and have set up a single portal through which they can be contacted, which only takes one minute to complete.
