By KSS YPAG,
At the recent meeting of the Kent, Surrey & Sussex Young People’s Advisory Group (YPAG) group on Saturday 20th June, the group heard a presentation about a project led by Dr. Tom Ruffles who is a respiratory consultant at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, part of University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. Tom also teaches medical students at Brighton and Sussex Medical School.
Tom is developing a research project looking at introducing asthma gene testing for children into routine care at GP clinics. The doctors would look at children’s asthma genes and then suggest the best asthma medication for them. Tom and his group of researchers think this could help control asthma symptoms better than normal care.
The YPAG group shared their experiences of asthma, their thoughts on how children might feel about doing a saliva sample (spit sample), how and when patients should be informed about the test results and what might be the most important outcomes for children with asthma and their parents/carers.
The second presentation was from Dr. Shalinee Bhoobun, a Paediatric Registrar, who works at a London hospital and is conducting a research project based at University College London. The project is looking at the views and attitudes of young people about a hypothetical vaccination for CMV (cytomegalovirus) Shalinee told the group about and why a potential vaccine could be important for protecting future generations.
The group were asked for feedback about Shalinee’s proposed study design and the potential barriers and motivators for young people with reference to taking part in the research study. This included an interesting discussion about the age of potential participants and research and vaccine consent processes.
Thank you to the presenters for sharing their project ideas. The group look forward to hearing more about these projects and potentially being involved as public advisors at later stages.
Celebrating a year since the inaugural session of our YPAG in November 2017, the greatest number of young people ever attended the meeting – 20 – including five new young people. Welcome!
Short animation exploring clinical research from the perspective of children.
This is a group activity that tests young people#’s knowledge about health research, as well as their steadiness of hand!
