President visits Clinical Trials Unit

21 Jan 2019

Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell met with members of the Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) in their new home in the Jean MacFarlane Building.

President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, has met with Professor Kay Marshall, Head of the School of Health Sciences and members of the Clinical Trials Unit (CTU) Team, who have recently transferred to their new home in the Jean MacFarlane Building.

The meeting was part of one of the regular ‘Coffee with Kay’ sessions, which Professor Marshall hosts every month to share information and discuss key issues informally over a cuppa and some cake.

The President’s visit prompted some interesting discussions on how best to promote the work of the CTU to researchers, both within the University and externally; and how we can change the widely-held perception that the CTU’s main focus is cancer research. Professor Rothwell also took the opportunity to update colleagues on the next steps in the ‘Our Futures’ consultation process and encourage participation in the forthcoming staff survey, which launches on 5 March.

The Manchester Clinical Trials Unit (formerly MAHSC-CTU) successfully completed the move from its former base at the Christie Hospital to new offices on the first floor of the Jean McFarlane Building in October last year. Now based in the School of Health Sciences, the move has enabled the CTU to become more closely integrated with Biostatistics and Health Economics.

In addition, the move provided the opportunity and impetus for the installation of new IT systems and equipment, including a new electronic capture, cloud-hosted trials database.  This in turn has helped the CTU secure new business - currently 39 clinical trials are managed by the 55-strong CTU team.

Despite the inevitable disruption associated with the move, the CTU has also recently been awarded full registration by the UK Clinical Research Collaboration until 2022.