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Clinical Innovation

The WHRU has an international reputation for delivering first class clinical trials and remains one of the leading centres in the UK. The WHRU also has the capacity for project management of clinical evaluations and is currently providing this service to a number of national and international, medium and start-up companies.

Clinical trials are carried out on patients referred to the WHRU under the guidance of the Principal Investigator by a team of experienced research nurses.

All trials are conducted under recognised Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and International Council on Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines. This ensures that all staff adhere to strict confidential, ethical and safety principles giving the patient complete confidence when entering a trial. Only a small number of patients referred to the Department will be involved in clinical trials and do so on a purely voluntary basis.

The importance of this clinical trials programme cannot be overemphasised as wound care practices have, due to research findings, changed dramatically in the last ten years. The potential for this type of research to improve patient outcomes is illustrated in the range of dressing materials that are now available on the Drug Tariff (FP10).