29 January 2018
Claire Nolan, a research physiotherapist at Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, has been awarded a clinical trials fellowship from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). It comes immediately after a recent project grant from the British Lung Foundation, awarded in December 2017.
The fellowship will allow Claire to further develop as a clinical trials expert. This includes gaining further experience in complex trial design, conduct, analysis and dissemination. The training will be in the form a secondment at the Pragmatic Clinical Trials Unit (PCTU) at Queen Mary University, under the supervision of Professor Sandra Eldridge.
Claire has developed a reputation as a rising star in pulmonary rehabilitation and is a member of several national and international pulmonary rehabilitation committees. She has also been invited to lecture at international conferences. These recent awards demonstrate the confidence research funders have in both Claire, as an up-and-coming researcher, and in research at the Trust.
Claire previously earned a doctoral research fellowship award from the NIHR in 2015, which is nearing completion. She was the first physiotherapist and non-medically trained staff member at the Trust to obtain such a fellowship. Her project aimed to determine the prognostic ability of usual walking speed measured over four metres (known as a four-metre gait speed test) in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The results of this research are due to be published soon.
Claire currently works at the pulmonary rehabilitation and muscle research laboratory at Harefield Hospital, under the supervision of Dr William Man, himself a recipient of the inaugural NIHR clinical trials fellowships in 2013.
He said: “Our research team are very proud of Claire’s achievements. She is a wonderful colleague, an excellent mentor and role model for all the research and clinical trainees in my team. Claire is a great asset to our team, Harefield and the Trust. We look forward to her bringing back new skills from her secondment.”
Claire said: “I feel honoured to have been awarded the clinical trials fellowship and I am looking forward to my secondment at the PCTU. I would like to thank Dr William Man and the Harefield pulmonary rehabilitation and muscle research team for supporting me in this endeavour.”
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