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New NHS service enables people to sign up to be contacted for COVID-19 vaccine studies
20th July 2020
A new NHS service has been launched today (20 July), providing an opportunity for people across the UK sign up for information on the new COVID-19 vaccine trials.
The new UK-wide NHS COVID-19 vaccine research registry will help recruit people into vaccine trials over the coming months.
The register has been developed and is being managed at the request of the UK Government’s Vaccine Taskforce, by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and NHS Digital to support COVID-19 vaccine trials in the UK. NIHR and NHSD have been working with the Scottish Government’s Chief Scientist Office and NHS Scotland and equivalent organisations in Wales and Northern Ireland on this initiative.
NHS COVID-19 research efforts in Scotland are being led by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) of Scottish Government, NHS Research Scotland (NRS) and Health Board R&D Offices; working closely, and in collaboration with equivalents across the UK nations, to enable and deliver research into COVID-19.
There are a number of vaccines being identified and safety-tested at the moment, but only large scale trials can give scientists the information needed about how effective they are. Researchers are looking for people from all backgrounds, ages and parts of the UK, including both people with or without existing health conditions, to take part in vaccine studies, to make sure that any vaccines developed will work for everyone.
The NHS Covid-19 vaccine research registry is available to anyone aged 18 or over, living in the UK. To register, people fill in some personal and contact details, and answer a series of basic health screening questions on an NHS.UK website form. The service is highly secure, with personal data and permissions held in a NHS system managed by NHS Digital, the national organisation responsible for IT in the health and social care system.
People registering their details through the service are not signing up to take part in a specific trial or study. Instead, researchers working on vaccine studies supported by the NIHR will be able to search for volunteers who have signed up to the service.
When a suitable volunteer has been identified, the researchers will send an email or text to anyone who matches the criteria for their study. This will provide more information about the study - and offer the user the opportunity to contact the research team and find out more, or express an interest to take part.
There is no obligation to take part in any study and people who sign up can change their mind and remove their contact details from the registry at any time.
To find out more, visit: www.nhs.uk/researchcontact. More information about taking part in COVID-19 vaccine research can be found at www.bepartofresearch.uk
