Research teams nominated for East Midlands awards
A leading cardiologist, the recruitment drive behind a physical activity study on teenage girls and a “pioneer” in helping the public understand research are among the Leicester-based nominations at an awards ceremony.
Professor Gerry McCann, a consultant cardiologist from the Leicester Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit (BRU), received two nominations at the East Midlands Clinical Network Research (CRN) awards.
He has been recognised alongside his colleague Professor Tony Gershlick in the Continuous Improvement/Innovation category for work they did on a heart study entitled the ‘Complete Versus Lesion-only PRimary PCI PiloT’ (CvLPRIT).
The findings of the study resulted in a change to American College of Cardiology guidelines and are likely to change the way multi-vessel disease is treated which could improve clinical outcomes, patient experience and help ease the financial burden on the NHS.
Professor McCann’s involvement in multiple leading research projects also received recognition in the Exemplary Investigator Contribution award.
A research team from the Leicester-Loughborough Diet, Lifestyle and Physical Activity Biomedical Research Unit (BRU) fought off competition to be shortlisted in the Exceptional Research Delivery award category. The NIHR-funded Girls Active study l is monitoring the effectiveness of the school based physical activity programme in 20 schools. The evaluation team, led by Leicester academic staff Dr Deirdre Harrington and Dr Charlotte Edwardson, recruited and did lifestyle measurements on 1,753 teenage girls for the trial within a six-week period.
All award finalists have been invited to attend the ceremony which will take place on Friday 29 April at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham.