St George’s NHS Foundation Trust is celebrating International Clinical Trials Day on Wednesday 20 May by hosting an Open Day at the Clinical Research Facility (CRF) between 10:00am and 3:30pm

The CRF staff would like to invite Tooting residents to join an interactive guided tour with the theme, ‘Clinical Research – from Cell to Cell-Phone and back again’.

St George’s are encouraging people from all walks of life to consider the role and importance of clinical research in Healthcare Services.

The specific aim of the event is to engage directly with visitors, in order to:

• demonstrate in practical terms the nature and scope of the work of the CRF
• illustrate how this activity fits within existing Standard of Care and Patient Pathways
• respond to visitors’ immediate questions and seek their views as part of a continuous consultation process, to help inform and direct CRF's forward-looking strategy.

Guided tour demonstration sessions will include:

• laboratory techniques - blood processing and DNA extraction
• cognitive and associative tests using smell - used in ageing and dementia studies
• mental skills and games - used in a number of studies, including epilepsy
• e-SMART Project - how personal device-based tech can help oncology patients monitor their wellbeing, and trigger follow-up support, using a mobile phone
• Respiratory function testing - used in Lung Disease studies
• Bio-impedance testing - used in a current Diabetes study, to assess the body's composition of fat to lean mass

If interested, please email crf@sgul.ac.uk and state a convenient time for you to attend, so that they can confirm your attendance in advance, and reserve that time to take you on a tour of the CRF.