The work of the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) in driving research to benefit the NHS has been recognised in the 2014/15 Annual Report of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
The report details the achievements of the NIHR – which funds research organisations across England, including the BRC – in the 2014/15 financial year.
The introduction by Professor Dame Sally C. Davies, FRS, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Adviser, Department of Health describes a BRC-supported blood management system at hospitals in Oxford that uses barcodes to ensure patients get the right blood and the right amount.
The system – detailed on page 53 of the report – last year saved £500,000 for Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which worked with the University of Oxford to develop it.
Prof Dame Sally wrote: “This system, if implemented across the NHS, could create savings of more than £50m each year and is a fool-proof way of ensuring patients’ safety.”
The report also features the BRC’s involvement with seven other BRCs in the NIHR BioResource, where patients give clinical information and samples so they can be recalled for research studies and early phase trials. It has recruited 61,000 people so far.
An NIHR Oxford BRC hosted project – the NIHR Health Informatics Collaborative (HIC) – is included in the report.
The collaborative brings together five BRCs to share patient data for benefits to health research and, ultimately, to frontline clinical care, NHS health services planning, patients and the public.
This includes acute coronary syndromes, ovarian, cancer, hepatitis, renal transplantation and intensive care.