A trial for every patient

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In 2018, Heart Research UK funded the Heart Surgery Priority Setting Partnership (PSP), which was a collaboration between the James Lind Alliance and the University of Leicester. The aim of the Heart Surgery PSP was to identify areas of priority in adult cardiac surgery from both patient and medical professional perspectives. Ten priorities were established: quality of life, frailty, chronic conditions, prehabilitation, heart valve interventions, surgical methods, organ damage, 3D bioprinting, atrial fibrillation and infection. This led to the National Cardiac Surgery Clinical Trials Initiative which brought together nine research groups, co-led by patients, set up to address these priorities. This resulted in 12 new research trials.

There is, however, an issue in terms of recruiting diverse patient groups into these trials. Trial participants are much more likely to be white, male and over 65. This means that the trial results may not be applicable to other groups of people. This is particularly important because women, the elderly, and people from non-white or deprived backgrounds are more likely to experience poor outcomes after surgery. To address this, in 2023, the Trial for Every Patient Initiative was launched. This aims to recruit to the national clinical trials programme from every part of the UK and for people from every community.

Throughout the initiative there will be regular meetings and workshops to ensure that the groups remain focused on the original research priorities and that patients remain central in the development of the trials. Additionally, research teams from the Universities of Bristol and Leicester will study potential issues with rolling out these trials and explore the best ways to improve the recruitment of participants from these underserved groups. This will lead to the development of a toolkit that can then be applied to all cardiovascular research studies.

Improving the recruitment of participants who come from often underrepresented groups will improve the accuracy of research results. It will allow medical professionals to make better decisions for their patients and ultimately improve outcomes from surgery for everyone.