North of England Alcohol Team (NEAT)

Background

Alcohol related liver disease (ALD) is the commonest cause of liver related hospital admissions and deaths in the UK. ALD disproportionately affects people living in socio-economically deprived areas and is a major contributor to health inequality. In spite of this, research in ALD has been less active and received less funding relative to other less common liver diseases.

There is an urgent need to improve capacity for research into ALD to increase recruitment and ultimately improve patient outcomes, especially in areas of high disease prevalence such as the north of England. Aims and objectives

We will establish an inclusive group of professionals, patients and public stakeholders in ALD research so that all patients in the north of England with, or at risk of, alcohol related liver disease are offered the opportunity to be involved in research. Objectives

We will form a new, diverse research group from across the north of England with patients and public groups at the heart of the partnership, build capability and capacity for doing research into ALD in the north of England and design and deliver high quality, methodologically innovative research studies in alcohol related liver disease

Methods

The NEAT will explore current barriers to research into ALD in the north of England in a series of workshop meetings, backing this up with survey evidence from practitioners and NIHR research activity data. We will use training courses established in our region to upskill patients, public contributors, administrators and practitioners to improve knowledge and confidence in research.

We will buddy staff from low-volume research centres with colleagues from centres of research excellence to gain experience, and arrange mentoring for potential future PI’s.We will review the research priorities in ALD set out by the James Lind Alliance in 2016, and use these as a basis for preparing grant applications for applied research that can be delivered by the infrastructure we will have established across the north of England. We will use established toolkits to ensure the inclusivity of our activity and to monitor the effect of our partnership.

Timelines for delivery

Within six months our partnership will have met to discuss and define the current barriers to research, and gathered information from surveys and from NIHR data. The next year will be spent upskilling members of the partnership and colleagues to address the barriers we have identified and allow greater participation in research. By the end of the 18 month program, we will have developed at least two high quality research funding applications that can be delivered in the north of England.

Anticipated impact and dissemination

NEAT will create a multidisciplinary group with strong PPI involvement, dedicated to delivering high quality research in ALD to improve the evidence base for treating this common disease. Building on with existing clinical and research infrastructure, we will deliver a network that is better equipped to design and deliver research into ALD amongst high prevalence areas.

The work of our partnership will be disseminated by regular open virtual meetings, a dedicated conference to promote the work of the partnership and through bite-size updates delivered via email, twitter and facebook profiles to extend access to the work of the partnership. We will establish a formal website to promote the work of the group.