Welcome to the 2^nd SDRN Newsletter

12^th May 2007

SDRN: a work in progress

“At the time of our Launch Conference seven months ago, I wrote that SDRN was in its infancy: full of potential, but with numerous challenges to negotiate on a daily basis in order to flourish.   As predicted, we have had to develop fast since then - I believe we now have in place a team strong enough to deliver a real deepening and strengthening of the diabetes research infrastructure in Scotland.  This is an exciting and busy time at SDRN.  We are on the cusp of “first patient, first visit” of the first multi-centre commercial trial to have been brought into Scotland by SDRN.  We are seeing a resurgence of patient-oriented clinical research in diabetes over numerous NHS sites.  Overall, we have been overwhelmed by the goodwill and support from the diabetes community that we have been able to “tap into” as a Network.  Support for the Research Register is almost universal amongst people with diabetes as a secure mechanism for matching their details to trials into which they might wish to be recruited. 

So, SDRN has completed childhood and is entering adolescence – the challenges will be greater for a time at least, but we can build upon a secure base so that we can be confident of building our strength, retaining control - and avoiding complications.”

- Dr John Petrie, Network Lead, SDRN

New faces in SDRN

We have now appointed a Training Officer (Gill Reekie) working with SDRN 2 days a week to facilitate site registration.  Gill is an experienced diabetes research nurse and is available to SDRN and potential SDRN sites to do group or individual training on research and research techniques.

Please contact her on: 01382 660111 x: 33475 or email: gill.reekie@nhs.net

Epidemiological research

The first official meeting of this group was held at Diabetes UK in March 2007. This Group is chaired by Dr Robbie Lindsay from Glasgow and has representation from around Scotland. SOPs for conducting epidemiological research have now been finalised and will be published on our website.

Clinical trials

SDRN now has contracts to do clinical trials with most of the major pharma companies and this work has been shared out amongst all registered sites. We have also been advising academic trials at the protocol-writing and feasibility stages. The first meeting of the Clinical Trials Group will be convened over the next few weeks and we are recruiting people who want to play an active role.  We are keen to hear from researchers based in Scotland with: (a) ideas for multi-centre studies in diabetes, and (b) a track record in obtaining research funding.

Research register

The documentation for the creation of this register has now been piloted in Dundee with great results of almost 80% of patients approached agreeing to join the register. The register is now starting to be rolled out to all the SDRN sites.

Training

We have several training courses in the pipeline ‘Conducting a Clinical Trial’ will run in Dundee on the 6^th June and in Glasgow on the 29^th August. Please contact Paul, SDRN Administrator on p.g.mcintosh@dundee.ac.uk for further details and a registration form.

UKDRN have organised a special workshop on ‘Informed Consent’ which will be held in Dundee on 15^th June 2007. For registration for this course, please contact Paul Chester on paul.chester@drl.ox.ac.uk

All of these training courses are free and can be used for CPD purposes.

Website

The SDRN website is under development at present and we hope to ‘go live’ within the next few weeks.  It will be at www.sdrn.org.uk.

Any enquires re SDRN please contact:

Shona Hynd, Network Manager on: 01382 660111 x: 34594 or s.m.hynd@dundee.ac.uk