A member of staff at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has won the Clinical Research Rising Star of the Year Award at the North West Coast Research and Innovation Awards 2019 for excellence in research and innovation.
The North West Coast Research and Innovation Awards celebrate the excellent work being undertaken across the region in clinical research and innovation in healthcare. More specifically, the awards aim to demonstrate how clinical research and innovation have an impact on patient care.
Andy Nixon, Clinical Research Fellow in Renal Medicine at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, was crowned the winner of the Clinical Research Rising Star of the Year Award at the awards ceremony last night.
Andy said: “I am absolutely delighted to have won this award! I am incredibly grateful to Paul Brown, Kina Bennett, Nichola Verstraelen and Jacqueline Bramley in the Department of Research and Innovation for nominating me. I am the first appointed Clinical Research Fellow in Renal Medicine at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and without their support I would not been able progress as I have done. With their guidance and under the supervision of Consultant Nephrologist Dr Ajay Dhaygude, I have developed and delivered original research projects, actively engaged patients and the public in research design and established new collaborations with researchers that have a shared goal, specifically the improvement in the health and wellbeing of older adults.”
“Over the last 18 months we have presented our research on the diagnostic accuracy of frailty screening methods in advanced chronic kidney disease at national and international conferences and recently published our manuscript. We are now performing a study funded by Kidney Research UK evaluating the feasibility of a randomised controlled trial that investigates the effect of a home-based exercise programme on the physical function and quality of life of pre-frail and frail patients with chronic kidney disease.”
“Last year, with the support of the Clinical Director of the Department of Renal Medicine, Dr Mark Brady, I was appointed as the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Renal Project Lead for the Specialised Clinical Frailty Network. We are one of only five Renal sites to be selected to participate in this national project that aims to improve specialised services for older people living with frailty. I am delighted to report that we are now implementing an entirely new care pathway for patients living with frailty and chronic kidney disease.”
“I hope that our research and service improvement work will help secure funding for future original research within this field to be conducted at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and the NIHR Lancashire Clinical Research Facility, ultimately leading to improved outcomes for patients living with frailty and chronic kidney disease.”
Andy was nominated by Paul Brown, Head of Research and Innovation at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals. Paul said: “While there have been a number of research fellows working within research and innovation (R&I) over the years, Andy is the first to be embedded here within R&I and in the NIHR Lancashire Clinical Research Facility. This has not only been a springboard for Andy working on and now leading his own research, but also for developing the blueprint for research fellows here, i.e. a vital clinical role but with a clear research drive and motivation. We believe such roles are vital not only to clinical team recruitment and retention but also to our organisation in developing its own home-grown research and principle investigators. We are all absolutely thrilled that Andy has won this award; he truly deserves this recognition for everything that he does.”