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My Time as a Research Participant

This week we have a fantastic guest blog from Ruaridh Buchan, Scottish Pharmacy Clinical Leadership Fellow at NHS Lothian.  Ruaridh highlights his experience as a first time research participant in the SIREN study and what it feels like to be on the other side of the table.

Over the past few months, COVID-19 has impacted my personal and work life significantly.  Both my wife and I had COVID-19, as did close family members.  Thankfully all our symptoms were mild, and we recovered quickly, but I am all too aware of the devastating effects that the virus can have on our patients.

Research has a key role to play in the fight against COVID-19 by helping to develop new tests, treatments, and vaccines to prevent and manage the spread of the virus. I have been involved in supporting delivery of the numerous COVID-19 drug and vaccine studies that have been delivered in NHS Lothian and recently had my first experience of being a research participant when I enrolled in the Siren study at the Edinburgh Clinical Research Facility.  Despite being in familiar surroundings, it felt strange going into the CRF. I work as a clinical trial pharmacist, so my job is usually supporting delivery of clinical trials in the CRF opposed to being a research participant.

The purpose of the Siren study is to understand whether prior infection with the virus that causes COVID-19 protects against future infection with the same virus.  It is thought that antibodies which are produced by the body when someone is infected with COVID-19, remain in the body and help to protect against future infection.

I decided to enrol in the Siren study because I wanted to do my part to help us understand more about COVID-19 and how to manage it.  I was interested to learn if having been previously infected with COVID-19 meant I developed antibodies that might give some protection against the virus.  In my job, I usually don’t meet the patients that take part in the clinical trials that I help deliver, so I was interested to understand more about what it means to be take part in a clinical trial as a participant.

From the outset, I was struck by the knowledge and professionalism of all the research nurses.  I had an initial phone call, where everything was explained fully and carefully.  I would be asked to complete an online enrolment and consent questionnaire, a nose and throat swab every 2 weeks to look for the presence of COVID-19, a blood test every 4 weeks to test for antibodies and a short follow up questionnaire every 2 weeks. The first visit would be face to face, and after that I could swab myself and ask a kind nurse colleague to take my blood.  After reading the participant information leaflet, I agreed to take part, so my first face to face visit was booked.

It was nice to see a familiar face when I came to the CRF for my first visit as had worked with the research nurse on several clinical trials previously.  After completing the online enrolment and consent questionnaire and giving a blood sample, came the bit I was dreading – the throat and nose swab.  Anyone who has done this will know that the process invariably results in an unflattering combination of gagging and sneezing, and this time was no different.  I was reassured to hear that this gets easier with practice. On balance, I think that putting up with the nasal and throat swab is a small price to pay if it helps to discover more about how we manage COVID-19.

While I walked back to the car, I read the schedule of assessments that was given to me to remind me when swabs and bloods would be required.   I thought it looked like a lot of things to remember, but I know that Siren is straightforward compared to some of the more complicated drug studies that we support in Lothian.

Being a research participant myself, helped to remind me of the time and effort that research participants put in to supporting research.  As someone who works in research, but has never participated in research, enrolling in the Siren study has taught me a lot and reminded me of the important contribution that research participants make to scientific research every day.

We would like to thank all of the Research Participants who dedicate their time to helping science!

(Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash)

(Photo by R Howie on Unsplash)

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