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Be Part of Research. (n.d.).

Five amazing health research breakthroughs in the last 12 months [Online]. Available from: https://bepartofresearch.nihr.ac.uk/Articles/Health-research-breakthroughs/ [Accessed 11.02.22].

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With the COVID-19 pandemic putting a spotlight on the nation's wellbeing, more of us than ever are realising the importance of medical research - and coming to understand the vital role it plays in shaping our society and healthcare systems.

Why is health research so important?

Health research is critical to making sure that we're providing the best possible care for everyone - both today, and in the future. Whether our knowledge is gained through clinical trials, equipment testing, surveys, questionnaires or data analysis, the answers we find help us improve our processes, healthcare and make positive change.

In fact, some of the most important medical discoveries over the past 80 years - including aspirin, penicillin and the contraceptive pill - would never have come about if it weren't for the hard work of scientists, researchers and volunteers.

As the nation's largest funder of health and care research, the NIHR is dedicated to gathering the robust knowledge which makes such discoveries possible.

It's thanks to health research that we're able to:

Improve diagnosis time and accuracy

Better understand how to prevent conditions from developing

Fight new strains of viruses

Provide life-saving treatments and procedures

Ease suffering and improve care

Five amazing health research breakthroughs

1. The Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine It was the discovery the world had been waiting for: in 2020, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was found to be effective at preventing COVID-19 and offering a high level of protection.

Key facts

The vaccine was developed by biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca alongside the University of Oxford. Development of the vaccine was funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Department of Health and Social Care through the NIHR.

Clinical trials enrolled more than 24,000 participants from around the world - from the UK to South Africa.

Trials showed that the vaccine was 70.4% effective - or 90% effective when administered in a half dose followed by a full dose - and that it could also prevent transmission.

Within just 5 months of being approved, around 17 million people in the UK and EU had received a dose of this life-saving vaccine

Key facts

With a shortage of liver donors, researchers supported by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre aimed to develop an alternative to transplantations.

Malfunctioning bile ducts, which act as the organ's waste disposal system, are the cause of 70% of liver transplants in children, and a third in adults.

The researchers used this technique to grow new 'mini-bile ducts' in the lab.

Research showed that biliary cells from the human gallbladder could be converted into bile duct cells to replace and repair the damaged bile ducts.

This is the first time a procedure of this kind has been used on human organs and this breakthrough could increase the number of suitable donor livers.

This approach could also be applied to range of organs and diseases, to further accelerate cell-based therapy research.

Key facts

The study was funded by the NIHR's Health Technology Assessment Programme and Cancer Research UK, and involved 32 hospitals in ten countries. Results confirmed the effectiveness of Target Intraoperative Radiotherapy (TARGIT-IORT), a treatment which is delivered directly after tumour removal and which acts as both surgery and radiation treatment at once.

TARGIT-IORT works via a small ball containing a single dose placed inside the breast.

TARGIT-IORT also has fewer radiation-related side effects, a better cosmetic outcome and leads to a substantial reduction in deaths from causes other than breast cancer.

4. The steroids and arthritis drugs saving the lives of COVID-19 patients
Researchers on the NIHR-funded and supported RECOVERY study (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 therapy) which examined multiple drugs and their effects on COVID-19 recovery for hospitalised patients, discovered that the steroid dexamethasone and the arthritis treatment tocilizumab were able to dramatically reduce the risk of death for patients with severe COVID-19.

Key facts

Dexamethasone has since been reported to have saved 22,000 lives in the UK and an estimated one million worldwide in the treatment of COVID-19

In 2021, tocilizumab was found to reduce the length of hospital admission and the risk of patients requiring mechanical ventilation

2022 patients were randomly allocated to receive tocilizumab by intravenous injection. Results were compared with 2094 patients randomly allocated to usual care alone.

The study showed that for every 25 patients treated with tocilizumab, one additional life would be saved.

Read more about the and the dexamethasone study tocilizumab study

Key facts
The study was funded by NIHR, sponsored by University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, and developed with researchers from The University of Nottingham's School of Medicine.

The study found that traditional oral antibiotics are just as effective as intravenous antibiotics in tackling Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

No longer requiring intravenous medication means that patients can be treated in the comfort of their own home, improving the quality of life for many people with cystic fibrosis.

Getting involved with health research

From the life-saving procedures to the discoveries that have improved treatment, none of these breakthroughs in health research would have been possible without the support of volunteers.

That's why it's so important to get as many people as possible interested in research - because only through working together will we keep advancing the field of medical care.

There are many different types of health research and ways to get involved, and you don't have to have a medical condition in order to help out.

Ready to see how you can make a difference in health research? Find a study in your area today.

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With the COVID-19 pandemic putting a spotlight on the nation's wellbeing, more of us than ever are realising the importance of medical research - and coming to understand the vital role it plays in shaping our society and healthcare systems. Why is health research so important?

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The Behaviourist Theory helped us understand why individuals do what they do. This is "a theory of learning which states all behaviours are learned through interaction with the environment through a process called conditioning" (McLeod S, 2020). As a result of this understanding, behaviour modification programmes have been developed to help change the behaviours of young offenders and the behaviour of children.

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The Social Learning Theory is useful for understand behaviours in a social context. So for example, it would be useful to understand if a child's behaviour is influenced by other children at school.

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The Cognitive Theory can help understand behaviours as it has opened views for understanding disorders for processing information. For example, if an elderly woman has developed dementia, it can change the way they behave and think.

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This practice was developed as a result of the Humanistic Theory, which was created by Abraham Maslow. This theory "put the person in the centre of this process" (Wyatt L, 2017). This is helpful as it created views of behaviours from individuals that have a safe place to live.

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For example, a child was admitted into hospital for a broken wrist but was also seen to have bruises all over their body. The hospital would then have to notify social services and the police to help prevent that child from returning back into an abusive household.

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Whilst researching and gathering evidence for these theories, it has created a strong foundation for practices.

Bowlby and Robertson's study consisted of a 2-year-old showing sings of PDD (Pervasive Development Disorder), most commonly known as atypical autism. As a result of this child showing behaviours of this, the child was having less frequent visits from the child and more frequent visits from the parents.
Within Bowlby's theory of Maternal Deprivation, these are two of the changes that has occurred.

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Because of theories like Bowlby's, drives researchers to look for the causes, treatments and any possible preventions if they know that there is a biological cause present. For example, researchers have come across the causes of different diseases, such as cystic fibrosis. However, the causes for others, such as dementia or Alzheimer's disease, are still being looked in to.

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Gesell's Maturational Developmental Theory. 

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Gesell's Maturational Developmental Theory. 

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This theory focuses on children in the care of adults. Her theory resulted in teenagers who were sectioned under the Mental Health Act were not be under the care of adults but should have a special provision that would help with their maturational requirements.

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Therapeutic relationships that are developed from psychodynamic theory, is a theory that is commonly used for individuals that suffer from depression and anxiety, to help them gain an insight to their unconscious thoughts.

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Later on, the humanistic theory is used to encourage person-centred counselling, which is based on the work by Maslow and Rogers.

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Instead of treating anxiety and depression with shock treatments such as electroconvulsive therapy (where an electrical impulse is passed through the brain), talking therapies were introduced.

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Kelly’s personal construct theory and Gestalt therapy helps individuals to think about their thoughts and behaviour. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has been found to be more effective than medication in helping people to manage their emotions, such as stress.

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Within health and social care, awareness has increased with professionals, patients and service users. this is because we can now understand much more about the mind and the body.

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Selye's General Adaptation Syndrome Theory helps to understand autoimmune
diseases where the body’s own defence system starts to attack healthy cells, for example, in bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis.

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Many people do not rely on healthcare professionals for looking into their health, instead they will now search online and
arrive at the medical or social service with
more knowledge about their own conditions.

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Coping strategies may be used by individuals to manage stress. They may focus on coping with emotions, for example reducing fear or anxiety, without talking about the reasoning for the stress. Talking to others, for example in emotional support groups where people share their experiences, can help people to cope with
the emotions that they have also experienced.
Writing about emotions in a private journal is one way of coping with grief a person can do nothing about the situation.

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some negative ways of coping with the emotions of stress may include eating too much or too little or relying on alcohol or drugs. These strategies are harmful to physical and mental health. The problem may be due to lifestyle – living a cash-rich but time-poor or vice-versa.

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McLeod, S. (2020). Behaviourism [Online] Available from: https://www.simplypsychology.org/behaviorism.html [Accessed 09.02.22].

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Behaviorism, also known as behavioral learning theory, is a theoretical perspective in psychology that emphasizes the role of learning and observable behaviors in understanding human and animal actions.

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Wyatt, L., et al. (2017). Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care. London: Hodder Education Group

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The super effective single-dose breast cancer treatment. 

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The super effective single-dose breast cancer treatment. 

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This was led by researchers at University College London in 2020, "an alternative breast cancer therapy was found to be as effective as conventional treatment – while taking just 30 minutes" (Be Part of Research, n.d.).

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This study was funded by multiple hospitals and charities, all across the world. this includes cancer research and NIHR's Health Technology Assessment Programme.
This links to HSC practice as it creates new and rapid treatments with the same effect as, for example, chemotherapy.

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The oral antibiotic advancing cystic fibrosis treatment.

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The oral antibiotic advancing cystic fibrosis treatment.

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The 10-year-old trial, succeeded in 2020, revealed that oral antibiotics could successfully be used to treat a common cystic fibrosis complication at home.

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Within this study, there were "286 participants across the UK and Italy with different CF study centres" (Be Part of Research, n.d.).
The oral antibiotic is less a less invasive tactic, and can be done from home. This can improve the life of many that suffer from the disease.