Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (SASH) is a research active Trust and involved in a range of research studies that aim to find out new information to help continually advance treatments and healthcare for our patients and people who use our services.
Why do we do research?
We believe that research is for everyone.
There is evidence that hospitals active in research provide better patient care outcomes and providing high quality research for our patients to take part in is very important to us.
Research can help give us more answers to healthcare questions that we don’t have the solutions to yet and can provide the evidence to drive better treatment outcomes for patients. It is essential to help get a better understanding of different conditions and to improve diagnoses and treatments. It can also help us to learn how to prevent illness and improve health and wellbeing.
All of our research studies that we host at SASH are important in helping to advance medical and healthcare knowledge with the ultimate goal to improve future healthcare for the benefit of all patients and service users.
We offer our patients and service users opportunities to participate and help contribute and there are many different types of research that patients, service users and the public may be able to take part in; from studies aiming to find out more about patient experiences all the way through to clinical trials.
Research Activity at SASH
Our clinical research is delivered by our healthcare professionals, non-clinical staff and dedicated research delivery team across a range of specialities throughout SASH and we provide opportunity to take part in both observational and interventional studies. Lots of types of patients or service users are involved ranging from babies to older people.
We currently have around50 active research studies. Our research activity includes the following areas:
Cancer, Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Cardiology, Paediatrics and Neonatology, Reproductive Health, Orthopaedics, Surgery, Diabetes and Endocrinology, Anaesthetics, Dermatology, Stroke, Rheumatology, Intensive and Critical care.
Last year, over 5500 participants took part in research studies at SASH. – thank you to everyone who participated in these important studies.
All of our research activity is reviewed and approved by the Health Research Authority (HRA), the organisation that protects the interests of patients and the public taking part in research in the UK.
We are an active partner of the South East Regional Research Delivery Network who we work with to make sure that we deliver high quality research at SASH.
Why take part in research?
The reasons people take part vary, but people often say that taking part in a clinical trial or research study is a positive and rewarding experience. Participants involved in a study related to a medical condition they have often feel as though they are more knowledgeable and are taking a more active role in their healthcare as a result. Participants also describe wanting to help contribute to the future of patient’s and wider society health and wellbeing.
Being a participant in a clinical research study can sometimes also mean being amongst the first to benefit from the very latest treatments or innovations.
Without our patients and public volunteering to take part in research, we wouldn’t be able to achieve such amazing progress and the more people that take part in research, the faster the progress we can make!
How can I get involved?
There are lots of ways to get involved in research at SASH from taking part in a study to becoming a research champion!
Taking part in a research study
If you are invited to take part in a study or trial, it is entirely up to you whether or not you would like to get involved. If you decide not to participate, your NHS treatment will not be affected and you will continue to be looked after like any other patient and receive the best care we can offer. You can read more about what taking part in research involves here.
If you are interested in taking part in research you can:
• Talk to your clinical team or ask a member of staff if there are studies available for you
• Contact the Research and Development team - sash.research.office@nhs.net or phone 01737 768511 extension 2804
• Sign up to ‘Be Part of Research’ via this website - https:/
Become a Research Champion
Passionate about research? Have you taken part in research and now keen to share your experience to engage and get others involved?
If so, become a research champion!
We always welcome research champions to help spread the word about what taking part in research is like, potential benefits of taking part and sign posting to those interested in how to get involved.
If you are interested contact the Research and Development team - sash.research.office@nhs.net or phone 01737 768511 extension 2804
Patient and Public Involvement
For further information about why public involvement in research is important and other ways and opportunities to contribute to research, please see;
• Public involvement in research
• I want to help with research
My Research Experience survey
We are always aiming to improve the research experience at SASH and if you’ve taken part in research here, we’d be really pleased to hear from you.
Please contact the Research and Development team
sash.research.office@nhs.net or phone 01737 768511 extension 2804 – if you have taken part in a study at SASH and would like an opportunity to provide feedback.
Research PerformanceInitiating and delivering clinical research
We aim to become a centre of excellence for research by ensuring that:
• participation in research studies and clinical trials is offered to as many patients as possible
• our research is initiated as quickly as possible
The Trust aims are underpinned by the government’s initiatives to improve the performance of providers of NHS services in initiating and delivering clinical research, which has been driven by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) mission and areas of focus.
The NIHR has established performance benchmarks that we and other NHS providers are measured against. The aim of these benchmarks is to increase the number of patients who have the opportunity to participate in research and to enhance the nation’s attractiveness as a host for research.
The Department of Health and Social Care has launched a pilot that uses the NHS number of research participants to gather basic participant information – such as age, sex, and postcode – from existing NHS systems. The aim is to better understand who is taking part in NIHR research to make sure it is inclusive and reaches the right people.
Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust is participating in this pilot. You can find out more here: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in Health and Care Research pilot - NHS England Digital
Transparency notice for the EDI Research Pilot
This notice provides information about how NHS England processes personal information for the purposes of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in Health and Care Research Pilot (the EDI Research project).
The personal data collected from NHS trusts in England will be:
• NHS number (of people participating in health research)
• health data implied from research speciality (such as, participation in cancer trials)
NHS England will match the NHS number collected from the NHS trusts with the NHS number held within its own systems to obtain the following data about people who have participated in health research:
• postcode
• date of birth
• age range (obtained from date of birth)
• gender (recorded in Patient Demographics Services (PDS) as administrative gender. Provided by the General Register Office and as gender is written on the birth certificate).
Data collected is aggregated by NHS England, with small numbers suppressed, so you cannot be identified from the data, before it is made available for approved analysts to use.