Paediatrics

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Clinical research involving children is essential to increase the safety, efficacy and availability of medicines and medical procedures for children. The NRS Children's Network provides the infrastructure and expertise in the form of clinical research facilities and experienced paediatric research nurses, to support trials of new medicines, trials to provide evidence for the use of current medicines and trials to determine best clinical practice.

The Network portfolio includes commercial and public funded clinical trials of medicines and non-medicinal studies such as genetic epidemiology, registries and post-marketing phase 4 studies.

The Clinical Director is Prof Jürgen Schwarze from the University of Edinburgh. The Network Coordinating centre is in Royal Aberdeen Children's hospital and is managed by Dr Pamela Dicks.

There are Clinical Research Facilities at each of the four children's hospitals and small teams of experienced paediatric research nurses at-

Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital
Tayside Children’s Hospital at Ninewells, Dundee
Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh
Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow
Children’s Services at University Hospital Crosshouse.

Support in the set-up, research governance and conduct of trials is also provided.

The Network has a Young Person's Advisory Group that act as advocates for young people in research. The group meet regularly and can advise on the acceptability of research protocols, the attitudes of young people, the design and content of patient and parent communication tools and how to optimise trial protocols for patient recruitment and retention.

Professor Jürgen Schwarze
Research Champion
jurgen.schwarze@ed.ac.uk

Dr Pamela Dicks
Manager/ YPG Coordinator
p.dicks@abdn.ac.uk