Alder Hey Children’s Charity have recently helped support new research at Alder Hey through the £50,000 Seedcorn fund, led by Alder Hey’s Clinical Research team. The funding will help provide new ground-breaking research projects across the organisation. Over 30 applicants from different teams across Alder Hey, submitted ideas for research projects, and in July the six successful applicants were chosen.
The response to the research funding opportunity was fantastic and demonstrates the amount of research interest and talent that we have at Alder Hey. Dr Dan Hawcutt, Alder Hey’s Director of Research said:
“We are thrilled by the enthusiasm across Alder Hey for this initiative, demonstrated by large number of applications that have come through. It was great to see so many applications from new names and teams, who have not worked with the Clinical Research Division before.
While it is a shame that we cannot support all the projects, we are really excited by the six projects that are being funded and their potential to improve how we care for our patients. I believe this programme can be a steppingstone for the further development of cutting-edge research and care at Alder Hey.”
The £50,000 funding will go in to:
Next Generation Treatments and Diagnosis
By funding projects such as research into the development of 3D Gait Analysis (a non-invasive way of accurately measuring the way you move) and finding new and better treatments for Hirschsprung’s Disease (a rare condition that causes blockages of the bowel), we will be able to provide research that aims to improve the quality of life and reduce the long-term complications for our children and young people.
Henrike Greaves who is leading the research into the 3D Gait Analysis and is a Physiotherapist at Alder Hey said “To assess walking in children is extremely important to make clinical decisions on interventions such as orthopaedic surgery, but so often children struggle with the assessment. The Seedcorn funding is massively helping us to invest in different technology to measure walking in children which is less intrusive and more natural. We are extremely excited and grateful to drive this project forward and wouldn’t have been able to do so without the Seedcorn fund!”
Breaking Down Barriers to Research and Staff Wellbeing
People who need translation services are often not included in clinical research. We are investing in the development of affordable, accessible and sustainable ways of providing translated research material, which will enable us to improve opportunities for children and young people and families not fluent in English and ultimately help improve their health.
Research into how we can help improve the health and wellbeing of our staff and looking at which methods work best in supporting our staff, will in turn help improve patient care.
Looking after the wellbeing of our children, young people and staff is our priority.
Listening to Our Children
Our children and young people shape our research. One of the projects will look at what impacts the day to day life of children and young people living with Lupus (a long-term condition that causes joint pain, skin rashes and tiredness). The aim is to create a tool alongside our young people who have lupus to help them better manage their condition.
Sadly, paracetamol overdoses are common. Current treatment focuses on reducing liver damage however we know that the kidneys can also be affected. We want to improve the care of patients following overdose and reduce the occurrence of kidney damage.
Thanks to donations from Alder Hey’s supporters, we have been able to boost research into these valuable areas which will make a huge difference to the lives of our children and young people.