Research and Development

After focussing on the research response to the Covid-19 pandemic we are pleased to be able to re-open our comprehensive portfolio of research studies.

What is research and why is it important?

The easiest way to describe research is: the attempt to find out something that we don't already know.

More formally, it is the attempt to derive generalisable new knowledge by addressing clearly defined questions with systematic and rigorous methods.

Without medical research there wouldn’t be new medicines, improved treatments or better ways of providing healthcare.

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is a Research Active Trust

We are committed to taking part in high quality research as we believe it adds positively to the experience of our patients and their family members. We are passionate about the contribution that clinical research can make to patient care.

Both of our hospitals University Hospital Lewisham and Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Woolwich) are actively engaged in research in many clinical areas. All research conducted within the Trust is governed by strict NHS regulations and in order to carry out a research project a detailed assessment is carried out by the Trust Research and Development team.

It is clear that outcomes are better in organisations that take part in research. There are also benefits beyond this – our research income fully and partially supports research posts across the Trust and our commercial income has been used to provide essential new equipment and to seed a range of products to improve patient care.

Research is core NHS Activity and we should all try to become involved, visit the following pages for more information:

Taking part in Research - Information for Patients & the Public

Setting up a study - Information for staff, researchers or sponsors

Improving Performance in Initiating and Delivering Clinical Research