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Dr Chloë George, Head of Blood Component Development at the Welsh Blood Service has been awarded a Health and Care Research Wales Trials Development Award.
This is the first for the blood service as Chloë is planning to move into the clinical research space and develop a randomised controlled trial for the use of cold-stored platelets in the pre-hospital environment.
"While I am an experienced researcher, I have not developed and run a clinical trial before. This award will support me to learn about setting up a trial, from study design, statistical methods and cost-effectiveness analysis to negotiating the trials' approval processes and obtaining funding.
I will be working with a very experienced mentor, Dr Kym Carter from the Swansea Trials Unit. The unit has also worked previously with the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service, which are key collaborators for this trial.
This means that my mentoring and training can be specifically tailored to the demands of conducting clinical trials in these complex emergency environments, accommodating the realities of providing urgent care while ensuring compliance with the regulatory standards around clinical trials".
Our research has shown that cold-stored platelets maintain their haemostatic function when transported with blood in the passive refrigerated cool boxes used by Welsh Air Ambulance. The next step is to develop a clinical trial to assess their use in patients with major traumatic haemorrhage in the pre-hospital environment.
"The trial we are proposing would be the first novel blood component clinical trial in patients designed and run from WBS and the first trial using cold-stored platelets in the UK.
The aim is to establish if pre-hospital transfusion of cold-stored platelets with the standard of care treatment is better than standard of care alone when patients have life-threatening bleeding events.
I would like to thank Health and Care Research Wales for awarding me this funding. The support will enable me to dedicate two days a week to focus on developing the trial protocol and allow me to immerse myself in the process."
Michael Bowdery, Head of Programmes and Joint Interim Director at Health and Care Research Wales, said: “We are once again pleased to be able to provide funding for a range of personal and project awards that will support the development of our researchers while addressing important areas of health and care need.”
Professor Monica Busse, Director of the Health and Care Research Wales Faculty added: “Applications submitted to the latest round of personal awards were once again compelling and diverse. We look forward to welcoming them to the All-Wales Faculty community of researchers and hope this funding will enable them to make meaningful progress in advancing their research careers in their chosen fields.”
