Northumbria University academics are part of a research team looking into the effects of Long Covid which has won a global award from Nature.
With tens of millions of people worldwide living with Long Covid, the researchers were keen to bring together clinical insight with the lived experience of patients to gain a richer understanding of the causes and impacts of the condition and the challenges patients continue to face.
The international study led by Professor Mark Faghy at the University of Derby and involving researchers from 18 countries has been described by the judges at the Nature Inclusive Health Research Awards as being ‘a model for the future of health research.’
Dr Emily Hume and Dr Paul Ansdell, along with PhD students Padraig Spillane and Elisa Pastorio, from the Department for Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation at Northumbria undertook cardiopulmonary exercise testing to identify the physiological determinants of Long Covid. Participants with Long Covid performed the exercise tests on consecutive days, while the research team monitored the response of their heart, lungs, and muscles to identify where impairments occurred.
The data collected at Northumbria was pooled with other sites in the UK, USA and India to create a highly comprehensive dataset with broad demographic representation.
The award for the latest research follows earlier work that reviewed the long-term cardio-respiratory and metabolic health complications associated with COVID-19 and how multidisciplinary approaches between clinical and non-clinical entities are needed to provide effective and rehabilitative patient support pathways and restore pre-COVID-19 quality of life and functional status. Read more about the work here.
Dr Hume said: “With an estimated 2.2 million people in the UK and more than 65 million globally living with Long Covid, our understanding of the condition, who may be more susceptible to it and ultimately our ability to really support those living with the condition is limited.
“There have been so many different parties worldwide collaborating on this project and the close involvement of patients has given us a really rich insight into what they experience on a daily basis.
“Going forward this should help lay the foundations for future work to build on how we can better support those living with this condition.”
The team was praised for ‘demonstrating powerfully how patient-led research delivers greater impact’ by judges at the awards ceremony, which took place in Cape Town, South Africa.
Mark Faghy, Professor of Clinical Science at the University of Derby, said he was delighted to receive the award on behalf of the Long Covid community and the research group and thanked all the institutions that worked together as part of the project.
“The team has worked so diligently on this research over the last four-and-a-half years and although we are proud that our hard work has been recognised, we know that Long Covid continues to impact the lives of so many people around the world,” he said.
Helen Jenson, Head of Grants and Awards at Nature, said: “The most notable quality of this study is that it delivers two equally important things; the results are going to give us our first genuine quantifiable insight into who is particularly susceptible to Long Covid and potentially, why but perhaps, more importantly, it is a model for the future of health research and the way in which it should be done.
“It demonstrates powerfully how patient-led research delivers greater impact and greater benefit. Every public funding body should be paying attention to the effectiveness of this approach.
“Professor Faghy, his team, their patient collaborators, and their research partners around the world are to be admired and congratulated for establishing the standard that other UK research institutions must strive to emulate, and that funding bodies and regulators should be expecting from them if they want to be certain that their money is delivering the maximum public and patient benefit.”
Nine initiatives were shortlisted for the awards with three chosen to receive €20,000 Euros each towards further research.
Northumbria University is dedicated to reducing health and social inequalities, contributing to the regional and national workforce and improving social, economic and health outcomes for the most marginalised in society.
Through its new Centre for Health and Social Equity, Northumbria researchers will be delivering world-leading health and social equity research and creating innovative, evidence-based policies and data-driven solutions to bring impactful change across the region, the UK and globally.
For more information visit the website: www.northumbria.ac.uk/CHASE.
