Call for more patients to enroll into the RECOVERY trial

CRN South London’s Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Dawn Beaumont-Jewell, is urging healthcare professionals to play their part in recruiting patients to the RECOVERY trial.

The NIHR-supported RECOVERY trial aims to identify treatments that may be beneficial for people hospitalised with suspected or confirmed COVID-19.

Nurses and doctors can help researchers by offering the trial to COVID-19 patients. Dawn said:

“It is vitally important that we get as many patients admitted to hospital in south London with COVID-19 onto the RECOVERY trial as quickly as possible. This will help to ensure we get results from the trial sooner, which will then allow treatments to be used that save lives.

“My message to doctors and nurses is: the RECOVERY trial is improving COVID-19 care. You can help research by asking your patients to consider enrolling in RECOVERY.”

The RECOVERY trial, which is led by the University of Oxford, is currently testing the following treatments:

• Low-dose dexamethasone, a steroid being used to limit inflammation in the lungs. Only children are being recruited to this treatment arm of the trial
• Colchicine, an anti-inflammatory used for treating inflammation and pain
• Tocilizumab, an anti-inflammatory treatment for rheumatoid arthritis
• Convalescent plasma
• Aspirin, which is commonly used to thin the blood
• Regeneron’s antibody cocktail, a combination of monoclonal antibodies directed against coronavirus

Patients are randomised to receive either usual standard care, or standard care plus one of the main treatments being evaluated. When medications emerge as possible treatments, they can be added as ‘arms’ of the study the person could be selected onto.

The RECOVERY trial is being funded by UK Research and Innovation and the NIHR and through core funding provided by the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Wellcome, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Department for International Development, Health Data Research UK, the Medical Research Council Population Health Research Unit and NIHR Clinical Trials Unit Support Funding.

Visit the RECOVERY trial website for more information.