Healthcare professionals are using University Hospital Southampton’s (UHS) Research Leaders Programme to improve care for patients.

The Research Leaders Programme (RLP) is open to all healthcare professionals employed by UHS.

The competitive award covers salary costs for at least one day a week for up to three years. It provides time, training and personal development to support staff to achieve their ambitions.

UHS is guided by its three core trust values of Patients First, Working Together, and Always Improving.

Three current awardees share how the RLP is helping them to live these values.

Patients first

Improving the lives of young people with kidney disease

Kidney disease is a lifelong condition with no cure. It gets worse over time, but a well-managed diet can help young people with it to live well for longer.

The UHS Research Leaders Programme is enabling Dr Caroline Anderson, a Clinical Academic Paediatric Dietitian, improve care for these young people.

Patients are at the centre of her research, as she delivers it with them. For example, she has integrated a patient-led digital dietary assessment into care. She also set up a Youth Panel with LifeLab, where young people discussed the feasibility of campaigns to help them eat less ultra-processed food.

Successfully obtaining an NIHR Senior Clinical and Practitioner Research Award through the support of the RLP means Dr Anderson can dedicate 40% of her time to research over the next five years. She plans to co-produce all future studies with young people, and explore early prevention and digital interventions.

“It’s all about having children, young people and families at the heart and centre of any initiatives going forward,” she says.

Working together

Collaborating with researchers across the South

Working together is a central part of research, as you cannot do it alone.

One of the main reasons Dr Linden Stocker joined the RLP was to form new collaborations with other researchers.

Dr Stocker is a Foetal Maternal Medicine Consultant. She is investigating the relationship between a woman’s circadian rhythm, or ‘body clock’, and pregnancy outcomes.

As the Lead for Women and Reproductive Health at the NIHR South Central Regional Research Delivery Network (RRDN), she is now well placed to form new regional collaborations.

The south-central RRDN is one of 12 established in October 2024.

“The RLP has supported me to become a true research leader,” she says. “I now work with researchers across our region to improve reproductive and pregnancy outcomes for patients.”

Always improving

Virtual stroke assessments enable faster treatment

In stroke care, every minute counts.

“For every half an hour you delay treatments in this setting, patients have a 10% less likely chance of returning to independent living,” Dr Richard Marigold explains.

“Relatively small amounts of time can make a big difference to outcomes.”

An Associate Professor at the University of Southampton and RLP holder, his main focus as lead of the NIHR Hyperacute Stroke Research Centre is delivering clinical trials and new treatments to patients early on within nine hours of their symptoms starting.

Stroke patients are now getting faster, life-saving treatment at UHS through the innovation of virtual stroke assessments.

The hospital piloted video calls between paramedics and specialist nurses to assess patients in the ambulance. This means faster scans, quicker treatment and better chances of recovery.

The process is also helping doctors spot non-stroke cases early, saving time and resources. The next steps will include regional roll-out, so that more hospitals can realise the benefits.

“This is an incredibly exciting project,” says Dr Marigold. “It has the potential to revolutionise acute stroke care.”