Andy Willis

Barriers and facilitators to the recruitment of disabled people to clinical trials: a scoping review Underrepresentation of disabled groups in clinical trials results in an inadequate evidence base for their clinical care, which drives health inequalities. This study aims to review and map the potential barriers and facilitators to the recruitment ...

Shariq et al's scoping review on barriers & facilitators in the recruitment of people with a disability draws on 5 themes
Risk v benefit
Design & management of recruitment protocol
Internal & external validity
Consent & ethics
Systemic factors
#MethodologyMonday
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

JAMA article "When Words Disappear—How Banning Words Imperils Health Care Communication" by Nupur Agrawal, MD, MPH; Keith C. Norris, MD, PhD. Published online December 10, 2025. Article discusses banning certain words in healthcare.

💬 Viewpoint: Federal bans on terms related to diversity, equity, and inclusion limit effective patient-clinician communication, impede health care research, and challenge the delivery of patient-centered care.

ja.ma/4juoezG

Image of interlocking puzzle pieces in a circle

🚨Just launched: OPTIMISE recommendations to help ensure consent processes in trials are more inclusive of people with communication and/or decision-making needs

⬇️download recommendations
ℹ️links to examples & info
🎦recorded webinar
↔️other resources

🔗https://www.capacityconsentresearch.com/optimise

Key concepts series: Estimands: what they are and why we should use them - Journal of Clinical Epidemiology www.jclinepi.com/article/S089...

Which demographic characteristics are associated with willingness to take part in recontact studies? A cross-sectional study Background Lower rates of participation in research by ethnic minority groups and socioeconomically deprived populations has led to efforts to develop recruitment strategies which aim to address this ...

What drives willingness to participate in health research?

Led by our #PhD student Zara Kayani, participation and consent to data linkage varies across demographic groups.

Inclusive recruitment strategies are essential to engage underserved communities.

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Retrospective use of the PRECIS-2 trial design tool to assess design choices in randomised controlled trials; An empirical review - Journal of Clinical Epidemiology www.jclinepi.com/article/S089...

📣 Our @streweek.bsky.social is lead author on an editorial in #Trials outlining a new mandate in the journal - mandating the reporting of six key participant characteristics in any protocol/trial report submitted to Trials on or after 1st Jan 2026. 1/2
trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

UCC aims to make health research more inclusive | Newstalk A new campaign at UCC aims to make health research more inclusive, to include under-served groups...

Fantastic to see Prof Frances Shiely, our Director of Education, highlighting the great work of the SENSITISE @sensitise-eu.bsky.social project on Newstalk with Pat Kenny.

Take a listen: www.newstalk.com/podcasts/hig...

Sounds a great piece of work, happy to take part 👍

The risk of Long Covid symptoms: a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled studies - Nature Communications Estimating the risk of long COVID is challenging because many of its symptoms are associated with other conditions. Here, the authors conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies that esti...

📢 Our new review on #LongCovid: 50 studies, 14M+ people. COVID linked to ↑ risk in 39/40 symptoms.

Top risks (likelihood compared to controls):
👃 Smell loss (4.3x)
👅 Taste loss (3.7x)
🧠 Brain fog (2.7x)
💇 Hair loss (2.4x)
🏥 Hospitalised = higher risk
🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s414...

@arc-em.bsky.social

Use of the pragmatic-explanatory continuum indicator summary tool in low- and middle-income country settings: Systematic review - Journal of Clinical Epidemiology www.jclinepi.com/article/S089...

To kick off #MethodologyMonday in May, we bring you a poignant article by the Editors in Chief of the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. They address the “elephant in the room”, the upheaval of the global evidence research eco-systems pursued by the US administration.
www.jclinepi.com/article/S089...

Our PhD student is interested in hearing from less heard voices on their views on health research and how we can be more inclusive. Please do share and if you can help do get in touch with Zara via the details below.

CC co-supervisor @andyw123.bsky.social

🇪🇺 Clinical trials are the gold standard for demonstrating the benefits of medical innovation, including anti-cancer treatments, but many EU patients face barriers to access.

👇Read the article on equitable access to cancer #clinicaltrials in #Eurohealth: tinyurl.com/EHcancerdial...

#CancerResearch

KLAXON 🚨: Indie SAGE has come out of retirement to release a new short report standing up for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the sciences!

DEI is not just the right thing to do, it *improves* the quality of the science. Please read and share.

independentsage.org/wp-content/u...

1/2

Measuring the environmental impact of health interventions in randomised controlled trials – a scoping review - Journal of Clinical Epidemiology www.jclinepi.com/article/S089...

New clinical trial map launched in the EU | European Medicines Agency (EMA) Patients can locate trials for potential enrolment in their area

📣 The EU has launched a new map of #ClinicalTrials. Thanks to this new tool patients will be able to locate trials for potential enrolment in their area. Read more about this map 🗺️ www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/new-...

Seven high-impact interventions to tackle health and care inequalities - Health Equity Evidence Centre We have undertaken a series of 10 evidence reviews for NHS England and here highlight seven interventions and programmes with the strongest evidence base.

www.heec.co.uk/resource/sev...

7 High impact interventions to address health inequalities- many interface with primary care with community and peer supported interventions necessary to close the health literacy and self-advocacy gap.
#PrimaryCare #GeneralPractice

PDF preview of "Making Pragmatic Clinical Trials More Pragmatic."

Viewpoint discusses the challenges of implementing findings from pragmatic clinical trials in health care systems.

https://ja.ma/4gvoewT

Comments, suggestions, and criticisms of the Pragmatic Explanatory Continuum Indicator Summary-2 design tool: a citation analysis The pragmatic explanatory continuum indicator summary (PRECIS) tool, initially published in 2009 and revised in 2015, was created to assist trialists …

Thoughts and feedback from users of the PRECIS-2 trial design tool, and our thoughts on what might change for its next update. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I'm pretty new to Bluesky and haven't found all the trials methods researchers yet! Trying to bring us all together in one place for others to find & fill my feed with all things trials. Please feel free to share and let me know if you'd like added. go.bsky.app/AsP6Yta

Count me in too 👍