1 December 2025
Harefield Hospital was proud to host the 19th Annual Research Showcase, celebrating outstanding heart, lung, and critical care research across our hospitals.
This year’s event featured an impressive range of posters, highlighting innovative projects and impactful studies that demonstrate the depth and breadth of the research expertise of our staff.
Projects included outcomes after coronary interventions, new approaches to severe asthma treatment, and the impact of race-neutral lung function equations. Other posters explored paediatric heart rate prediction, patient education on infective endocarditis, and innovations in cardiovascular care for cystic fibrosis.
Prizes were awarded in three key categories: Most Innovative, Greatest Patient Impact, and Early Career Researcher. These were selected by our judging panel: Dr Sam Irving, Geraldine Sloane, Professor Michael Polkey, Dr Thomas Burgoyne, Dr Debbie Ford, Dr Gemma Stanford, and Dr Haifa Lyster. Staff also voted for their Staff Favourite, and the Director’s Choice award recognised a standout contribution.
Two standout posters were selected for oral presentations during the event. Melanie Palmer, specialist physiotherapist, presented “Pulmonary Rehabilitation Using Minimal Versus Specialist Equipment: Effects on Quadriceps Strength.”
Emily Diable, cystic fibrosis nurse specialist, shared insights from “From Lungs to Hearts: Innovating Cardiovascular Care in Cystic Fibrosis.”
We were also honoured to hear from keynote speaker Dr Sarah Collins, cystic fibrosis specialist dietitian, who shared her inspiring research journey with her talk, “A Journey of Discovery: Evolving Through Research”.
The winners were announced as follows:
Most Innovative: Zander Williams, pulmonary exercise physiology researcher, for his poster titled ‘Impact of continuous bronchoscopy during exercise on cardiopulmonary and ventilatory parameters.’
Greatest Patient Benefit: Melanie Palmer, specialist physiotherapist, for her poster titled ‘Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) using minimal versus specialist equipment: effects on quadriceps strength.’
Early Career Researcher: Bethan Wright, asthma nurse, for her poster titled ‘Does frequency matter to severe asthma patients? Views on current and upcoming severe asthma biologics.’
Staff Favourite: Critical care nurses Mary Batalla, Alvin Cortuna and Yumna Mohammad Sali, for their poster titled ‘Hand hygiene champions: An integrative review’
Director’s Choice: Hannah Mitchell, clinical specialist physiotherapist in critical care, for her poster titled ‘Multidisciplinary team’s experiences and perceptions of prolonged mechanical ventilator weaning in the adult intensive care unit’
Congratulations to all our winners and a huge thank you to everyone who submitted a poster.
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