The government’s 10-Year Health Plan is expected to provide a fillip to clinical trials, and it plans to make use of the NHS App to encourage people to sign up as participants.
People will be able to sign up for the NIHR Be Part of Research service (bepartofresearch.uk) on the NHS App for the trials best suited to their interests and needs.
The NHS App will also automatically match patients with studies based on their health data and interests, sending push notifications to their phones about relevant new trials.
The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has already launched a UK-wide recruitment drive for clinical trials, to get as many people involved.
The focus is on encouraging people from underrepresented groups, including minorities from African and Asian heritage, to sign up.
The 10-Year Health Plan will transparently evaluate the Trusts that are performing the clinical trials, and only the better performers will get government funding.
All NHS Trusts and organisations will have to submit data on the number of trials they conducted and their progress.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said that the UK will lead the charge in the emerging revolution in life sciences.
"The 10-year plan will marry the genius of our country’s leading scientific minds, with the care and compassion of our health service," he said.
Streeting lamented that the UK has, of late, fallen behind as a global destination for these trials.
The health secretary pointed out that it takes around 100 days to set up a trial in Spain, but around 250 days in the NHS due to "unnecessary bureaucracy and duplication of activities".
"The plan will see commercial clinical trial set-up times fall to 150 days or less by March 2026," he said.
NIHR chief executive officer Lucy Chappell said, "We know the benefits of embedding clinical research across the NHS and beyond. It leads to better care for patients, more opportunities for our workforce and provides a huge economic benefit for our health and care system."
Dr Vin Diwakar, Clinical Transformation Director at NHS England, said, "We’re making it easier to sign up for clinical trials through the NHS App so patients can access new treatments and technologies."
The global clinical trials market is estimated to be worth at least £59.22 billion by 2030.
