The Trial Talk podcast explores how our work at the UCL Innovative Clinical Trials Unit (formerly the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at UCL) is improving health in the UK and around the world. Through conversations with world leading experts, researchers, and patient representatives, we take listeners inside the studies we run. From clinical trials in cancer, infectious diseases, and neurodegenerative conditions to pioneering research on trial methodology, the podcast unpacks important results, explores how studies can be designed and delivered more efficiently, and shows how public involvement is helping to shape better, smarter clinical trials.
PediCAP trial: Optimising treatment for children with severe community-acquired pneumonia
Children with community-acquired pneumonia are usually treated with an injectable antibiotic for five days. This often means staying in hospital for the full treatment period, even when they are well enough to go home earlier.
The PediCAP trial tested a new approach designed to help children return home sooner while continuing to receive safe and effective care. In this episode, PediCAP team members Hilda Mujuru, Julia Bielicki and Michelle Clements discuss why the trial was needed, explain its innovative ROCI trial design, and share the results and what they mean for children, families and healthcare professionals.
More information about PediCAP: https://www.innovative-ctu.ucl.ac.uk/studies/all-studies/p/pedicap/
For questions or feedback on the podcast, message us at mrcctu.engage@ucl.ac.uk
As a listener, your opinion is very valuable to us. Please help us to improve the podcast in future by filling in this short survey: forms.office.com/e/PjfjQ5Mn6g
30 Jun 2026
The ACORD collaboration: Innovative Clinical Trials for Neurodegenerative Diseases
ACORD is a pioneering collaboration that brings together experts from a wide range of disciplines to accelerate the development of treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.
In this episode, we explore how ACORD works in practice, the innovative methodologies that underpin it, including the multi-arm, multi-stage trial design, and the opportunities it creates for researchers at different stages of their careers. We speak with James Carpenter, one of ACORD’s founders, and Ed Jabbari, an ACORD Fellow, about the vision behind the collaboration, its potential to transform clinical research in neurodegenerative diseases, and how it has shaped Ed’s career journey.
Further information is available on the ACORD collaboration page at www.innovative-ctu.ucl.ac.uk/.
30 Oct 2024
International Clinical Trials Methodology Conference 2024 roundup - early careers edition
At the start of October, lots of the Unit’s clinical trials methodology researchers travelled to Edinburgh, for the 7th International Clinical Trials Methodology Conference (ICTMC).
ICTMC is the largest academic-led conference on clinical trials, bringing together trialists from across the globe to present their latest work in trials methodology. This year's conference featured a wide variety of workshops, talks and poster presentations from MRC Clinical Trials Unit researchers.
In this latest episode of the Trial Talk podcast, four of the Unit’s early career researchers discuss the work they presented at ICTMC 2024.
Gideon Darko Asamoah tells us how he will deliver a core outcome set for trials in severe malaria; Jingyi Xuan describes her project addressing intercurrent events in platform trials; Dongquan Bi discusses the effects of different cluster sizes in cluster trials; and finally, Kate Roberts explains how she aims to improve the wording around consent for accessing trial participants' healthcare records.
For questions or feedback on the series, message us at mrcctu.engage@ucl.ac.uk
For more information and to access the transcript: https://bit.ly/4f9grVi
As a listener, your opinion is very valuable to us. Please help us to improve the podcast in future by filling in this short survey: forms.office.com/e/PjfjQ5Mn6g
More resources:
• Developing a core outcome set for severe malaria trials poster: https://www.mrcctu.ucl.ac.uk/posters/identifying-a-comprehensive-long-list-of-outcomes-for-developing-a-core-outcome-set-for-severe-malaria-treatment-trials-a-systematic-review-and-inclusion-of-outcomes-important-to-patients-and-caregivers/
• Specifying estimands and estimators in trials with complex designs poster: https://www.mrcctu.ucl.ac.uk/posters/specifying-estimands-and-estimators-in-trials-with-complex-designs/
• Demystifying estimands in cluster-randomised trials paper in Statistical Methods in Medical Research: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09622802241254197
• Estimands in cluster-randomised trials paper in International Journal of Epidemiology: https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/52/1/107/6644521
• Current practice around the use of estimands in cluster randomised trials, and the impact of informative cluster size on inference poster: https://www.mrcctu.ucl.ac.uk/posters/current-practice-around-the-use-of-estimands-in-cluster-randomised-trials-and-the-impacts-of-informative-cluster-size-on-inferences/
• ICTMC 2024 Poster 167 – A rap song (Lyrics by Dongquan Bi, beat by David Fitzgerald): https://youtu.be/s7qZ5TnOlWU?si=iXwfFfSAWwJ-fAmk
• CrossWord poster: https://www.mrcctu.ucl.ac.uk/posters/crossword-consent-to-access-and-use-healthcare-systems-data-for-clinical-trials-a-review-of-current-language-in-participant-facing-materials/
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