NHS health research shapes up for the future

A progress report is published today by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), which summarises all the progress that has been made putting in place the infrastructure, programmes and systems to facilitate health research - since the government launched the Best Research for Best Health strategy in January 2006.

Also launched today is a new section of the NHS Choices website, which is designed to give patients and members of the public more information about how to get involved in clinical trials.

The main progress highlighted includes:

• NIHR clinical research networks have been set up to support clinical trials throughout England, and promote patient and public involvement in health research. They are already boosting the numbers taking part in clinical trials improving their speed, quality and co-ordination.
• A good example is cancer research. The UK now has the highest national per capita rate of cancer trial participation in the world.
• Creating world class centres of excellence around the country. £450 million has been invested in eleven new biomedical research centres which are investigating major causes of illness and death such as cancer, heart disease, asthma, HIV, mental illness, blindness, childhood diseases and ageing.
• The NIHR is now commissioning more research through our new and expanded programmes and world class research centres. In 2006/07 our Health Technology Assessment Programme funded 22 new projects at a cost of more than 15 million pounds. In the same period we expanded our Service Delivery and Organisation programme to include new topics and areas and funded £45 million in programme grants.

The new 'Health Research' feature of the NHS Choices website provides information for those who are interested in all aspects of research - from setting research priorities to actually participating in trials themselves. The emphasis today is about ensuring medical research is relevant and benefits all communities across the country.

Clinical trials are research studies where patients test treatments or approaches to prevention or diagnosis to see if they are safe and effective, and any better than what already exists.

As well as encouraging more patients to take part in clinical trials there is also a need for more people to get actively involved in their development. It is not only patients who can do this, but carers, parents, and members of the public. This includes helping researchers to identify and ask the right questions in the right way and making sure that health and social care research is relevant to all those who use health services.