Volume 2

Medical research and the NHS reforms / House of Lords, Select Committee on Science and Technology.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. Science and Technology Committee.
Date:
1995
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Medical research and the NHS reforms / House of Lords, Select Committee on Science and Technology. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    1 November 1994] [ Continued 61. The increasing importance of the outcome of care is reflected in the need to ensure that clinical practice is audited and that it benefits from research and development. Through the Clinical Outcomes Group (chaired jointly with the CNO) the research implications are identified, in association with RDD, and translated into practice. 62. The CMO oversees the Department’s medical education and training arrangements which have strong and growing links with the R&D strategy. The CMO and DRD are both members of the Steering Group on Undergraduate Medical and Dental Education and Research (SGUMDER), established by the Department of Health and the Department of Education in 1987. QuESTION 14. Who is the NHS Director of Trials, and what does he do? 63. Negotiations are in hand which are intended to lead to the establishment of a National Director in the NHS R&D programme, with responsibility for trials. The Director’s role would be to work with the professions, research councils and research funders to promote the rapid establishment of high quality, large trials addressing important questions. QUESTION 15. Please supply brief details of the Cochrane and York centres, including addresses. Would it be appropriate for the Committee to visit them? 64. The UK Cochrane Centre (UKCC), established in October 1992 under the Directorship of Dr Iain Chalmers, facilitates and co-ordinates systematic reviews in the specialised area of randomised controlled trials of healthcare. The Cochrane Collaboration, an international network, deals with systematic reviews of all reliable evidence on the effects of healthcare. 65. The outputs by the end of 1994 will include data modules in four areas of healthcare, including pregnancy and childbirth. 66. The NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD), based at the University of York under the Directorship of Mr Trevor Sheldon, was established in December 1993 to provide the NHS with key facts from research into effectiveness of treatments and the delivery and organisation of health care. CRD core staff commission and support expert reviewers, ensuring that reviews meet quality criteria. Close co-operation is maintained with the UK Cochrane Centre and with others. 67. CRD produce user-friendly materials, based on research findings for dissemination to the NHS, ensuring that materials meet the needs of users of whatever functional role or professional background. In the longer-term, CRD will provide an enquiry-based service. 68. The outputs of CRD to date include commissioned reviews, completed or underway, in nine subject areas. CRD disseminates the well-known Effective Health Care Bulletins and will be producing further issues of this series and developing new series. The CRD has taken over responsibility for a “Register of Economic Assessments of Healthcare’’ formerly known as the Database of Cost Effectiveness Studies. This has recently been issued to the NHS in pilot form. CRD will be evaluating responses to it and further developing the Register. 69. The UK Cochrane Centre’s address is Summertown Pavilion, Middle Way, Oxford OX2 7LG. CRD’s address is NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York, Heslington, York YO1 SDD. 70. UKCC was opened in November 1992 by Mr Tom Sackville and is now well established; it would be appropriate for the Committee to visit the Centre. 71. The CRD has been established for less than a year and is still recruiting its core staff. A discussion with Mr Sheldon, the CRD Director, and Professor Richard Lilford, of Leeds University, the Chair of its Steering Group, might be more appropriate than a visit to the centre by the Committee. QUESTION 16. Please supply a list of Regional directors of R&D 72. The Regional Directors of R&D (RDRDs) in post are: Professor Andrew Haines, North Thames RHA Professor Terry Stacey, South Thames RHA Dr Pat Cooke, Trent RHA Professor Stephen Frankel, South and West RHA Professor Richard Himsworth, Anglia and Oxford RHA Professor Alexander McNeish, West Midlands RHA Professor George Alberti, Northern and Yorkshire RHA Professor Alasdair Breckenridge, North West RHA