Only two out of 100 PRAs in the West Midlands region are volunteering in primary care. 75 are volunteering with secondary care trusts, 15 with the Young Persons Advisory Group and 10 with the CRN West Midlands. Updates indicate only a possible handful of PRAs volunteering in primary care elsewhere in the country

If you are not involved as a practice in clinical research then the terms FAST, TASMINH4, HEAT, CHESS, CANDID, iWOTCH, and OPTiMISE will have little meaning other than a bunch of randomly assembled , vaguely incomprehensible words, with no apparent connection.

However, these are the cleverly constructed acronyms that represent just a few of the many clinical trials that we at Westside Medical Centre have been involved in.

Brian from Staffordshire took part in the CARE 75+ research study which explores how health problems and frailty may develop in later life for a number of reasons.

Five-year study draws to an end after recruiting over 30,000 aspirin users across primary care. The study, known as HEAT, was funded and supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and closed last month after recruiting patients over a five year period. Due to the large number of participants that needed to be recruited, the study was delivered with the involvement of 1,260 general practices across the UK.

My name is Geoff Robson. Having retired after working in the rail industry for 40 years, I wanted to be involved in some form of voluntary work within the NHS.

Having been involved with my local Patient Participation Group, I became aware of the Clinical Research Network and was asked if I would be interested in becoming a Patient Research Ambassador.

There have been some recent changes to the contractual requirements that must be in place by October 2018 to enable the LCRN to provide funding or resource to organisations to directly support the delivery of National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) portfolio research.

In order to comply with the host contract, we will be issuing a DHSC approved contract, described as a "Partner B" or "Partner C" contract.

Do you see teenagers with fatigue? They may come to your surgery with recurrent headaches or abdominal pain, nausea and dizziness. If the fatigue has lasted longer than three months and it is preventing them doing things, they may have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or CFS/ME.