“We just don’t know” Richard Innes, Consultant in Intensive Care at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust and Clinical Research Speciality Lead for Critical Care, says when describing the context for the RECOVERY-RS Study. The study looks to shed light on the most suitable form of ventilation to use when treating the patients worst affected by COVID-19.

Read more here: https://local.nihr.ac.uk/news/recovery-rs-addressing-clinical-equipoise-in-research/26414

Heather Willis, a Research Nurse at Good Hope Hospital, has been working on the frontline, delivering urgent public health research during the pandemic. Her experience has reinforced her views that research makes a real difference to patients' lives and is best delivered as part of a team. Her experience focuses on the RECOVERY-RS trial and forms part of NIHR's COVID-19 Research Voices series. You can read more here.

Phil was hospitalised with COVID-19 in early April 2020. Struggling to breathe, he was grateful to have the chance to take part in the RECOVERY-RS trial and hoped he would be able to help other people as a result. He tells his story here.

As part of the COVID-19 NIHR Research Voices series, Dr Jay Naisbitt, PI at Fairfield General Hospital and Consultant in Intensive Care medicine provides an insight in to the benefits of participating in RECOVERY-RS. Integrating this trial into routine clinical practice has facilitated patient recruitment and boosted morale across the team.

Dr Naisbitt explains it was clear the evidence base supports a position of equipoise (where it is unknown which treatment is likely to be better). When the team first took part in this research in April they had thought CPAP would be the way forward but now there is uncertainty which treatment will prove to have the best outcome for patients. Therefore, it is important to take part in this trial to overcome innate bias and provide the real evidence we need to inform decisions and treatments regarding ventilation strategies for COVID-19 patients.

Read more here: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/blog/covid19researchvoices-the-multi-fold-benefits-of-integrating-research-in-standard-care/25145