SUBMITTED BY PGMCINTOSH ON FRI, 11/05/2012 - 10:38
For the fourth consecutive year, we are delighted to report a significant increase in diabetes research activity in Scotland both in terms of number of studies and numbers of participants. After a very modest increase in numbers of academic studies in 2010, 2011 has seen a 28% increase in numbers of studies with many academic studies now being large collaborative efforts which are recruiting right across Scotland. Academic studies have seen an increase of 45% in patient recruitment again as they recruit across multiple sites and Health Boards. After a 38.6% increase in the number of commercial studies in 2010, 2011 has seen a smaller, but still significant, increase of 21% in the numbers of studies. A number of commercial studies have closed in the last year and many are still in the recruitment phase so numbers of patients recruited to these studies fell by 27.5% (there was a 33% increase in recruitment in commercial studies in 2010).
The SDRN Diabetes Specialist Research Nurses work on both academic and commercial studies at their sites so if the balance of workload between academic and commercial studies changes, then one of the areas will suffer. Major academic studies such as the CSO/DUK funded SDRN Type 1 Bioresource have been prioritised and this has adversely affected recruitment to other studies especially commercial ones.
The increase in patient visits conducted at each site shows that almost all the Scottish sites are working at, or often beyond, capacity and the decrease in patients recruited to commercial studies backs this up. We believe that SDRN has now reached its critical mass of studies and has stretched its research nurse resource to the limit. In order for us to be able to show any more expansion in future years it is imperative that we are able to increase the number of DSRNs that we employ.
To conclude, SDRN does appear to be fulfilling its aim of increasing both the quantity and quality of diabetes research in Scotland and the network infrastructure appears to be playing a major role in facilitating large collaborative academic studies. In the last year, SDRN has broadened out to include more of the smaller Health Boards giving more healthcare professionals and patients the chance to participate in research. SDRN appears to be going from strength to strength each year showing that if Scotland works together, we can produce world leading diabetes research.onals and patients the chance to participate in research. SDRN appears to be going from strength to strength each year showing that if Scotland works together, we can produce world leading diabetes research.
Full report here.