School of Medicine Blog

Judging the Rapid Eczema Trials art competition

mszteh — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 11:44:40 +0000

By Kate Henaghan-Sykes

I had the privilege of judging the Rapid Eczema Trials Art Competition. Entrants were asked to create a piece of artwork around the themes of “Me and my eczema” or “My relationship with eczema”. This could take any form, a drawing, painting, poetry, or mixed media.

Eczema affects millions of people worldwide, yet the true impact on individuals is often misunderstood, hidden away, or underestimated. What this competition revealed was a gallery full of honesty, vulnerability, and creativity, across three age categories: Under 12, 13–17, and Adults.

Under 12 – Expression and Honesty

The youngest entrants impressed me with their unfiltered imagination. Many captured eczema not just as something on the skin, but as something that lives with them on the inside too. Their artwork was direct, colourful, and poignant.

A recurring theme was the use of bold reds to illustrate flare-ups. Some described the constant itching or pain, while others shared poetry about overcoming big feelings. What struck me most was their bravery in sharing something so personal at such a young age. Their work reminded me that eczema is more than physical, it touches emotions, confidence, and every part of daily life.

Ages 13-17 – Identity, Struggle, and Strength

Teenage years can already feel overwhelming, and eczema brings an additional layer of challenge. The submissions in this group reflected that mixture of vulnerability and resilience.

One powerful piece used a tiger to represent the artist’s cultural identity, with stripes placed where eczema commonly appears on the body. The watchful eyes in the image captured a shared fear: “How do others perceive me?” At the same time, the tiger symbolised strength and endurance.

Another memorable entry showed eczema as a firestorm within the skin, with a thermometer reading 100 degrees. The imagery of burning cracked skin highlighted both the physical impact of an eczema flare and the emotional strain of feeling uncomfortable in your own body. These works spoke loudly about identity, perception, and the struggle to feel at home in one’s skin.

Adults: Reflection and Advocacy

The adult entries carried a different weight – sometimes reflective, sometimes humorous, and often deeply moving.

One poem summed up the relentlessness of living with eczema:

“The pain, the gain,

The skin, the win,

More sore, less sure,

The long for a cure.”

Another piece made me smile. It cleverly compared scratching eczema to winning a scratch card, a guilty pleasure we know we shouldn’t indulge in, but often do. The humour conveyed resilience and the importance of finding lightness in the face of stress, which can itself be a trigger.

A particularly emotional written entry detailed the act of packing for university. The practical items like bed sheets which need extra consideration for those living with eczema, it also revealed the emotional baggage of growing up with eczema – painful memories that never quite leave.

What judging taught me

This competition reminded me that art is more than paint on paper, words on a page, or a crafted creation. It makes the invisible visible by turning private struggles into something visible, and giving shape to feelings that are often too difficult to describe.

To everyone who took part, thank you. You didn’t just enter a competition, you contributed to a powerful shared voice. All of the entries can be viewed on the Rapid Eczema Trials website.

If you would like to find out more about Rapid Eczema Trials, please visit our website or email us on eczema@nottingham.ac.uk

The Rapid Eczema Trials project involves researchers, healthcare professionals and citizen scientists (people with eczema and parents of children with eczema) working together to answer important questions about eczema by designing and running clinical trials together.

The Rapid Eczema Trials programme is sponsored by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust and is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) under its Programme Grants for Applied Research programme (PGfAR NIHR203279). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.

The post Judging the Rapid Eczema Trials art competition appeared first on School of Medicine Blog.

Online eczema trials – reducing the carbon footprint of research

mszteh — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 15:29:48 +0000

By Vaibhav Chaganti and Emma Campbell

Climate change is happening right now, all around us. Across the globe we’re seeing more intense heatwaves, stronger storms, record-breaking floods, prolonged droughts, and more frequent and severe wildfires. These changes are largely driven by human activities that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Within Rapid Eczema Trials, we are keen to help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of research. We also strive to make our research as efficient as possible.

We know that clinical trials contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. However, we need them to find out whether healthcare interventions can benefit people. The government, research institutions, and organisations that fund research have all stressed the importance of finding ways to reduce the environmental impact of research.

To learn more about the impact of our own research, we decided to calculate the carbon footprint of one of our trials – the Eczema Bathing Study. This is one of a series of clinical trials that we are running through our Rapid Eczema Trials project. All of these studies take place fully online.

We calculated our trial’s footprint using guidance from the MRC-NIHR Trials Methodology Research Partnership (TMRP) Greener Trials Group. We measured the carbon footprint from the date the first participant was recruited to the date when we first shared the study results. The carbon footprint for this period was 14 tonnes CO₂e (carbon dioxide equivalent). To put this into context, the other 10 trials that have been footprinted using the same method had a range of 16 – 765 tonnes CO₂e. These 10 trials were all testing different things, and none were run completely online; they all had some activities that were conducted in-person.

The TMRP Greener Trials carbon footprinting drop-in clinics run monthly and are open to all trialists who would like to use the ‘NIHR-funded detailed method and guidance to calculate the carbon footprint of clinical trials’. For more information, see this flyer.

“By attending a carbon footprinting ‘drop-in clinic’ and footprinting a clinical trial, trialists will have a better understanding of the environmental impact of their trials. This could help inform future lower carbon trial design and, as funders begin to ask applicants to consider the environmental impact of their research, could help with describing this in funding applications and progress reports.” Lisa Fox, ICR-CTSU sustainability team.

Office-related emissions were a major hotspot in all of the trials, covering electricity, heating and staff commuting. In the Eczema Bathing Study, emissions from staff commuting contributed most to the carbon footprint. This was followed by emissions from office heating and electricity.

We also found that the carbon footprint of some activities could be changed by making small adaptations. For example, including videos on webpages increased the carbon footprint. Conversely, carbon emissions could be reduced by running online meetings with cameras off rather than with cameras on, and also by sending study invites out by text instead of by post.

The main drivers behind the low carbon footprint for the Eczema Bathing Study were fast online recruitment, which, in turn, reduced overall trial duration, and the reduced need for patient and staff travel. Although not all clinical trials will be suitable for an online-only format, we found that it was an effective way to reduce the carbon footprint of the Eczema Bathing Study.

Working through this carbon footprinting project has been a real eye opener, in terms of both the level of detail needed to collect data for the calculations, and the raised awareness of the carbon emissions associated with each individual task and activity. It really makes you think about every aspect of study design and delivery, weighing up which activities are absolutely necessary, and which can be adapted to be more environmentally friendly. This insight will definitely feed into our discussions about trial design and delivery going forward.

If you would like to find out more about Rapid Eczema Trials, please visit our website or email us on eczema@nottingham.ac.uk

The post Online eczema trials – reducing the carbon footprint of research appeared first on School of Medicine Blog.

Prize-winning eczema research

mszteh — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 11:34:20 +0000

By Kim Thomas and Laura Howells

Over the last few months, we have spent a lot of time sharing the results of our Eczema Bathing Study. It has been great to hear what the findings mean to people with eczema. Our study found that how often you have a bath or shower makes no different to eczema symptoms. People have told us it is helpful to know that you can bathe as often as you like – just do whatever suits you!

But, of course, talking to people with eczema is only half the story. We also need to share the news with doctors, nurses and pharmacists, so that they can provide advice to their patients. This is why we have been out and about at academic conferences to share the news.

Kim and Amanda went along to the British Association of Dermatologists’ annual conference in Glasgow to present the study results. This photo shows Kim with Beth Stuart, Chair of the UK Dermatology Clinical Trials Network.

We are delighted to say that we were awarded ‘Best Scientific Paper’ at the British Association of Dermatologists’ conference. You can see the (very large) trophy that we won in the image on the right. This is a fantastic achievement for this citizen-science project and reflects all of your hard work and commitment over the last few years – thank you!

Some of the team also went to the Society for Academic Primary Care conference in Cardiff to present the findings to GPs and researchers working in primary care.

At the conferences, there was lots of interest in the study. We thought you’d like to know what questions came up:

Does water hardness matter?

Answer: We didn’t look at this specifically. You might be interested in the results of the Softened Water Eczema Trial that we did some time ago – this study showed no benefit from installing a water softener for people with established eczema. However, the SOFTER trial, which was a smaller feasibility study suggested that water softeners might help in preventing eczema in babies. A bigger study is now needed to test this.

Does it matter how long you spend in the bath or shower?

Answer: Our study didn’t set out to answer this question. We asked people to tell us how long they spent in the bath or shower at the start of the study. We then used this information to check if the two groups were roughly the same. We asked everyone to carry on doing what they usually do – just changing how often they bathed. So there shouldn’t have been any changes to how long people were spending in the bath or shower. We know that some people have strong cultural beliefs about bathing practices, so how long to spend in the bath or shower could be worth exploring, possibly as a future Rapid Eczema Trial!

How do you know that the people taking part really did have eczema?

Answer: This is quite tricky to be sure about when running an online trial, as you never get to meet the participants. However, we recruited half of the study population through GPs – so all of these had a diagnosis of eczema on their medical records. We also asked people questions about their eczema and we found that 87% of people in the trial met the diagnostic criteria for eczema. An analysis looking just at those who we think definitely had eczema gave the same answer as the trial overall.

What advice would you give to other researchers wanting to follow your approach and conduct online citizen science trials?

Answer: It is all about the people and the community. Invest time in your community, communicate with them regularly, and listen to their feedback. Running several different clinical trials all using the same study design has meant that we can answer more questions for people living with eczema.

Over the coming months, we will continue to share the study results in different places and with different audiences. Please do keep sharing with your friends and networks too.

Some of our citizen scientists have helped us to create some lovely flyers to help with sharing of the results. If you would like printed copies to share in your communities, please do get in touch at eczema@nottingham.ac.uk and we will send you some in the post.

We have a version for children, with a word search and maze on the back, and a version for adults with details about the study design and results on the back. You can download high-quality digital versions of the flyers here: child version; adult version.

If you enjoyed being a part of the Eczema Bathing Study, then do please check out our next Rapid Eczema Trial, which has just opened for people to join up.

For further details see the Keep Control Study page.

If you would like to find out more about Rapid Eczema Trials, please visit our website or email us on eczema@nottingham.ac.uk

The post Prize-winning eczema research appeared first on School of Medicine Blog.

Reflections on the Rapid Eczema Trials community – your voice

mszteh — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 13:51:20 +0000

The Rapid Eczema Trials research project is spear-heading a new approach to running clinical trials in partnership with people with eczema. As part of our eczema community, you have helped us choose research questions that matter to you. Some of you have also then helped design and refine the clinical trials, both through surveys and online meetings.

We are very grateful for your input, and try our best to ‘give something back’. One way we do this is through our monthly newsletters.

In May 2025, we ran a survey with our eczema community. We wanted to hear your thoughts on what being part of this community means to you.

We were delighted to receive 64 responses. We were even more delighted to hear that everyone who said they regularly read the newsletter also said they find the content useful and interesting.

The most common reasons for signing up to the newsletter were: (1) to get advice on managing eczema (selected by 72% of survey respondents), to find out more about the project (59%), to volunteer as a participant in eczema research studies (56%), to help design eczema research studies (48%), and to connect with others who have eczema (28%). From the responses we received, it definitely seems as though we’re going some way to meeting these needs.

Respondents suggested a wealth of other content that they’d like to see in future newsletters. This is an invaluable insight. We will try to feature as many of the suggestions as possible going forwards.

By far the most popular suggestion was for us to share personal stories of how people are successfully managing their eczema. Another common suggestion was for more information on new research, and for links to medical guidelines for eczema. Other suggestions included advice on creams and bodywashes, antihistamines and natural remedies; and more information on the causes of eczema and eczema flare-ups.

At least one-third of respondents had been involved in opportunities promoted through the newsletter. These included joining online meetings as part of so-called co-production groups, taking part in clinical trials, attending webinars and EczemaChat sessions, filling in surveys, and sharing study information with friends and family. We can’t emphasise enough how this adds real value to our research, helping make sure our studies will benefit as many people with eczema as possible.

Some members hadn’t got involved in any of the opportunities because of lack of time. Some said that they didn’t feel as though they knew enough to help. We can definitely reassure all our members that you know loads! In fact, we call you our ‘experts by experience’. Other respondents thought their eczema was too well-controlled for them to get involved. Again, we can reassure you that there are lots of different ways to get involved if you wish, regardless of eczema severity. If you’d like to know more, please get in touch by emailing eczema@nottingham.ac.uk

Finally, I’ll direct you back to you the word cloud at the top of the page. This highlights the truly heart-warming words respondents used to describe what it means to be part of Rapid Eczema Trials. Thank you for being such a wonderful community!

If you would like to find out more about Rapid Eczema Trials, please visit our website or email us on eczema@nottingham.ac.uk

The post Reflections on the Rapid Eczema Trials community – your voice appeared first on School of Medicine Blog.

How a student project transformed lives

mszteh — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 10:25:20 +0000

40 years ago, Dr Katie Rhodes, then a medical student, completed her BMedSci focusing on the provision of services for families with children born with Down’s syndrome. Inspired by her sister Lucy’s journey, she completed multiple discussions with many families highlighting that support offered was very variable across Nottingham. Little did Dr Katie Rhodes know, but the paediatric neurodisability team went on to build a specialised Down’s syndrome service consisting of a monthly specialist clinic, working with community teams and charities to raise awareness and improve care for children and young people with Down’s syndrome – meeting all of her project recommendations!

On my SSM in paediatric neurodisability it was my joy to observe this clinic and join in with the 40th birthday celebration. I really enjoyed being part of the clinic and seeing how the physiotherapy and medical teams delivered specialist care tailored to children and young people with Down’s syndrome. It was a pleasure to meet both the children and families who had been part of the service for many years but also those to whom it was completely new. I met two families on their first visits to the clinic. It was great to see how the service offered much reassurance, support and advice to the families. The waiting room was a hive of activity where the children and families could meet. It was lovely to see how the families and Nottingham Down’s Syndrome Support Group welcomed the newcomers and exchanged contact details. I was left with a sense that these families were truly part of a community. The celebrations for the 40th anniversary of the Down’s syndrome clinic saw current and previous patients and staff excited to reflect on how much services had improved and ongoing positive hopeful steps for greater inclusion and less stigma. Parents shared precious stories and, for many of these children, the future is bright and hopeful.

With the opportunity to do my own project on autism throughout my placement, I hope to contribute in a similar way. I audited the autism referral pathways to see whether children and young people are being referred to the service with all the correct information. By identifying any information gaps and presenting the findings to the Community Paediatric team I hope that I’ll have played a role in improving the service for children and their families by highlighting the number of appointments and time taken to make or exclude an autism diagnosis.

I am very glad to have spent time in the Down’s syndrome clinic in Nottingham. It was inspiring to see how a medical student’s thoughtful and well-supported initiative has transformed lives over time. While my project may not have the same profound impact as Dr Katie Rhodes’s work, I’m optimistic that it will contribute to making services more efficient and accessible. It’s encouraging to think that even small steps can lead to lasting change and I’ll carry this learning with me throughout my career.

By Fiona McFarlane, AP1 medical student.

The post How a student project transformed lives appeared first on School of Medicine Blog.

The burden of eczema patients in Kenya

mszteh — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 16:24:36 +0000

The following blog has been written by Rachel Ogola, President of the Eczema Society of Kenya and EUPATI Fellow. We are fortunate that Rachel sits on one of our Rapid Eczema Trials co-production groups. It’s invaluable to have someone like Rachel helping to develop messaging around our research that can resonate with the global eczema community. We also hope that low and middle income countries will be able to use the online citizen science methods we develop for running clinical trials to answer patient-driven health questions.

The burden of eczema patients in Kenya

Eczema affects many patients across Kenya, yet it remains largely ignored and unprioritized. Patients face immense struggles, from wrong diagnosis, access to specialists, and long waits in queues. Patients in rural areas endure long journeys and walks to access hospitals and specialists. By the time a patient is diagnosed with eczema by an expert, they have probably been to four or more medics and been subjected to many tests and trial medication, including mishandling. Some patients give up along the way, others don’t get to ever see a specialist because they are already drained financially or emotionally.

The Eczema Society of Kenya works tirelessly to support patients, but limited resources, lack of enough personnel, stigma, cultural beliefs and inadequate funding make this work extremely difficult.

Key challenges for eczema patients in Kenya

Too few dermatologists

There are only about 30 registered Dermatologists in Kenya against a population of 55 million. Most dermatologists are based in urban centres, leaving patients in rural areas with very few options. Many patients endure long days and nights of travelling or walking only to wait days or weeks for an appointment.

High cost of treatment

Most of the creams and emollients used for the treatment of eczema are imported, making them very expensive to buy locally. It is also expensive to see a skin specialist. Many Kenyans live below the average income wage. Insurance Companies barely pay for creams after prescription. Many families struggle to put food on the table; the cost of treatment and medication would be the last thing on their minds, leading to flare‐ups, infections and poor quality of life.

Lack of awareness, cultural beliefs and stigma

There’s still little information on eczema. Cultural beliefs on skin diseases hang tight on the necks of patients. Eczema is believed to be a curse, bad omen and punishment. This has led to children being hidden in their homes or complete inability to attend school because of the extreme nature of condition, leading to lack of schooling, or drop-outs. Families have been disintegrated because of eczema, mostly by men remarrying and abandoning their families. Because of shame, families would rather opt for alternative healing which can be messy and harmful.

Lack of research and data

There’s very little to no research at all. Emphasis is on tropical diseases. This has made it difficult to understand prevalence, priority areas, and best treatment approaches. It has also affected advocacy, partnerships, call to action and policy influence.

Struggles of patient organisations

Organizations face ongoing funding challenges, lack of resources and inadequate capacity, thereby limiting their ability to support patients. The high demand for access to treatment far exceeds available resources.

The Eczema Society of Kenya wishlist

Expanding access specialists
Advocate for local production of creams and emollients
Lobby the Government and stakeholders for removal of taxes and duty on creams and emollients
Work with Health Insurance and Government agencies:
Push for policies that protect patients from discrimination in schools and workplaces
Lobby for a National nutrition package for patients living with skin diseases
Strengthen advocacy and awareness campaigns
Awareness and education in communities and schools to reduce stigma and misinformation
Increased research efforts
Study eczema prevalence and treatment effectiveness in Kenya
Secure research grants and funding for local studies
Strengthening patient organizations
Recruit local and international volunteers and set up mobile clinics in remote areas of Kenya
Secure funding for more robust advocacy, capacity building and legal aid fund for affected patients.

If you would like to find out more about Rapid Eczema Trials, please visit our website or email us on eczema@nottingham.ac.uk

The post The burden of eczema patients in Kenya appeared first on School of Medicine Blog.

My journey into research as a person with eczema

mszteh — Fri, 24 Jan 2025 11:36:04 +0000

I’d had enough of being stuck in limbo with my eczema. I felt like there was not enough educational material out there for people with eczema, and a lot of the questions I had about my condition remained unanswered by healthcare professionals. So, I googled ‘eczema trials’ to see what research was taking place in the UK for people similar to me who had eczema. I stumbled across the eczema bathing study and instantly completed the screening questionnaire. The study allowed me to contribute to research from the comfort of my home and I was keen to see the study’s outcome. One more question answered about eczema would always be beneficial for the eczema community!

After completing the study, the opportunity arose to work on a creative co-production project over a few months with Made by Mortals. Made By Mortals ‘Bring Lived Experience to Life’ through audio stories, film, music, theatre and interactive workshops. A story was being created about a person who lives with eczema and decides to take part in research, and the Made By Mortals team wanted individuals with lived experiences to help produce the story. Not only did the project sound novel but also innovative! It was a chance to be involved in other ways, creating content about life with eczema and taking part in research.

We’re halfway through the project now. So far, taking part has consisted of meeting online every few weeks with the Rapid Eczema Trials team, people with eczema from the Rapid Eczema Trials community, and the Made By Mortals team. I initially had no expectations of what the meetings would be like. After all, for me, it felt like the project was the first of its kind to show people’s experiences with eczema!

During the meetings, we were prompted with questions that considered our personal experience with eczema and research. These cleverly started to craft the storyline and our fictional character for the project. It was a fantastic way of getting our creative juices flowing and our brain ticking! But more than that, I felt the project was an opportunity to have discussions with other individuals who live with eczema and a platform to express my views on my condition. There was no wrong answer and the meetings were an open, non-judgemental and safe space for conversations about the group’s experiences with eczema.

I am sure that whatever comes out as the finished product of the project will be a source of educational content for the public. Not only as a means to show what it can be like living with eczema, but also to bring down barriers within communities to start conversations about clinical trials.

If you would like to find out more about Rapid Eczema Trials, please visit our website or email us on eczema@nottingham.ac.uk

Written by a citizen scientist in the Rapid Eczema Trials eczema community.

The post My journey into research as a person with eczema appeared first on School of Medicine Blog.

What an amazing year 2024 has been

mszteh — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 16:36:13 +0000

As we come to the end of another year and look to the future in 2025, we just wanted to take a moment to reflect on the amazing things that the award-winning Rapid Eczema Trials project has achieved over the last year. You have all played a part in that – thank you!

Our first trial completed

Our first trial, looking at how often people with eczema should have a bath or shower, has been a huge success. This question is such a commonly asked question. It is exciting to finally have a clear answer for people living with eczema.

Please do all share this simple message:

“People can choose whatever bathing routine suits them. How often you have a bath or shower made no difference to eczema symptoms in the Eczema Bathing Study.”

Next study developed

Hot on the heels of our first study, our co-design groups worked hard during 2024 to develop the research question and study design for our second trial. This will look at how long to use flare control creams for when you have an eczema flare-up. Again, this is a question that has remained unanswered for many years. We look forward to getting people involved in answering this question in 2025.

Testing the use of photos to assess eczema severity

One of the limitations of our online studies is that it is not possible to see people in real life. This means that we can’t look at their skin. We have been working with a team of researchers at Imperial College London to see if it is possible for people to take photos of their eczema and upload them. If it works out, this process could allow us to use computer-assessed eczema severity from photos in our next study.

It’s not too late to take part in this study – sign up on the Rapid Eczema Trials website.

Choosing a psychological intervention to test

We are always looking to the next study. The third area that people in the Rapid Eczema Trials community wanted to focus on was supporting psychological wellbeing for people with eczema. Our co-design group for this topic has focused on identifying things that we can test in an online study. We have found lots of options and are in the process of deciding which might be best to look at first.

Bringing science and the arts together

The Rapid Eczema Trials project is trying to do things differently. We want to raise awareness of research and how it can help people. To do this, we have been working with creative teams from Made By Mortals to create inspiring stories about getting involved in research. This work is bringing lived experience to life through film, music and interactive workshops. We hope this activity will inspire even more people to get involved and to help answer questions about eczema that they want answered.

Getting out and about in the community

There are many advantages to running our studies online. People from all walks of life can take part, including people living all over the UK. Nevertheless, it is always great to connect with people face to face and to hear their views. We have run many engagement activities during 2024 in a range of venues including shopping centres, local libraries and community centres. It has been great to meet you all and to hear your eczema stories.

So, if you have eczema or care for someone with eczema, we would love to hear from you. Visit the Rapid Eczema Trials website to sign up for our regular newsletters and join our community.

With all best wishes for 2025,

Kim and Amanda, co-leads of the Rapid Eczema Trials Project

The post What an amazing year 2024 has been appeared first on School of Medicine Blog.

Just one thing…

mszteh — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 16:33:41 +0000

Last month (15-22 September) was National Eczema Week. This annual campaign aims to raise awareness about eczema – so of course the Rapid Eczema Trials team wanted to do our bit to mark the week and support such an important cause!

We put our heads together and came up with the idea of making a series of short videos called Just One Thing. The idea behind it was to give people in the eczema community a voice and a platform to share their perspectives and advice, and in doing so, help to raise awareness about living with eczema.

We started reaching out across our networks; asking healthcare professionals, people living with eczema and their families, researchers, and other experts to each share ‘just one thing’ they felt was important about eczema. This could be tips on living well with eczema, learnings from their past experiences, or anything else they wanted to say. Each person then made a short video of less than one minute sharing their one thing.

Once the videos were complete, I shared them on our Facebook and Instagram pages; releasing a few videos on each day of National Eczema Week. My colleagues also shared them on other social media platforms. We were hoping for as many people as possible to see them, and also encouraged our followers to share them further and help raise awareness about eczema.

We were initially hoping for a least enough videos to be able to share one a day across our social media platforms for the duration of the week. The response we had was brilliant; everyone we spoke to was keen to get involved and we ended up with an impressive collection of 20 videos!

I think the level of enthusiasm and engagement we saw really highlights what an important and widespread issue eczema is, and how much it affects people’s lives. The variety of different topics covered in the videos was also a big eye opener for me personally.

I joined the Rapid Eczema Trials team in May 2024. I’ve been a researcher for almost 10 years now, but before moving into research, I was a community pharmacist. I have very mild eczema myself, but I’ve also worked with many people with severe eczema over the course of my pharmacy career. I’m well aware of how much impact eczema can have on people’s lives and, because it’s such a widespread condition, how often this impact can be overlooked or trivialised.

Watching the videos, I learned a lot of handy tips from them. For example, did you know that using liquid paraffin spray before and after sports can help with itching, especially for children who don’t have the option to shower at school? I also learned that people with eczema are likely to have more dust mites in their home than average, because their skin scales have a different fat content which makes them a great food source for the dust mites – fascinating stuff! (Don’t worry though, there’s plenty you can do to keep them at bay.)

As well as including some great tips and advice, the videos provided a really good insight into life with eczema, how treatments for eczema have changed over time, the dangers of misinformation surrounding the condition, and how important eczema research is. I really enjoyed watching all the videos and I would definitely recommend them to anyone who wants to know more about eczema.

Many thanks to everyone who took part in the Just One Thing video series. If you haven’t had a chance to watch the whole series yet, you can view them all on our website.

Written by Dr Lydia Tutt, Research Fellow

Find out more

If you would like to find out more about Rapid Eczema Trials, please visit our website or email us.

The post Just one thing… appeared first on School of Medicine Blog.

Exploring community beliefs around clinical research

mszteh — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 14:11:56 +0000

A wedding planner wouldn’t plan a wedding without input from the couple who are to be married…

So why would anyone do health research without input from the populations that they’re hoping to help?

Just like nearly weds will prefer certain arrangements over others, so will people find certain interventions more acceptable. And there’s no point planning a wedding that the couple won’t want, just like there’s no point producing a research outcome that society doesn’t want or won’t use.

That’s why the project I work on – Rapid Eczema Trials – is so exciting. It’s a Citizen Science project that involves people with lived experience of eczema in the design of online clinical trials.

Over 900 individuals have joined our Eczema Citizen Science Community. Through this, they hear about the different ways they can get involved in the project. Interestingly, although the ethnicity of the Community reflects the 2021 census data, we’re seeing a different picture when it comes to involvement in co-production groups and clinical trials. Asian ethnicities are highly represented in co-production groups – 22% compared with around 9% from the census data – but fall to only 6% of trial participants. Likewise, black ethnicities make up 4% of the co-production groups, but only 1% of trial participants.

Keen to explore the reasons for this, and to build trust in research in underrepresented communities, I was delighted to be offered a place at a recent event in London. Hosted by the charity Social Action for Health, I was one of seven Early Career Researchers who, alongside my Rapid Eczema Trials colleague Amanda Roberts, had the privilege of chatting about our research with members of underserved communities from Tower Hamlets.

As members of the local communities started to arrive, my first thought was that there was no risk of awkward silences – the community buzz was exciting, friendly and loud. The room soon filled with 22 participants from the local Bangladeshi, Caribbean, African and White British communities. All researchers gave a five-minute presentation to the whole group. Then, while participants remained seated, researchers rotated around the tables to have more in-depth discussions. Amanda and I, with the help of translators, delved into conversation about eczema and clinical research with seven women and three men, aged 30–69, all representatives of the Bangladeshi community.

The overwhelming take-home message from our groups was that this community would be happy to get involved in research if it was their GP who told them about it. There didn’t seem to be as much trust in research from other healthcare professionals such as nurses or pharmacists. The people we spoke with did trust information from family members and their local community groups and faith leaders, emphasising the importance of researchers building relationships with local community leaders. It was also interesting to witness first-hand the social stigma that is sometimes associated with eczema in this community, and the acceptance of home remedies for many health conditions.

The organisers are currently collecting feedback from participants, and I’m delighted that one piece of feedback already received specifically relates to eczema:

“I learned eczema is not just on white skin, everybody and every community suffer eczema.”

The event was a really exciting one for me, and also a first – my first experience of engaging with underserved communities who have very little spoken English. I’m very grateful to have been given this experience and would like to thank Steph Hanley from the University of Birmingham for securing funding for the event. I also thank the Social Action for Health team for organising the day and linking us with the underrepresented community groups in Tower Hamlets.

Written by Emma Campbell
Research Fellow

If you would like to find out more about Rapid Eczema Trials, please visit our website or email us at eczema@nottingham.ac.uk

The post Exploring community beliefs around clinical research appeared first on School of Medicine Blog.