Clinical collaboration

Translational research is facilitated by the co-localisation of a highly research active University with major strengths in biomedical research and one of the UK’s premier “super” hospitals, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB), with state-of-the-art patient-focused research facilities, as well as the new development of the first integrated, stand-alone dental hospital and dental school to be built in the UK for almost 40 years.

University Hospital Birmingham

Together with other affiliated NHS Trusts, this provides access to one of the largest patient catchment areas in Europe (5.5 million), with 800,000 patients being seen per year at the QEH alone. We have formalised this alliance of shared research, training and patient care objectives with UHB and Birmingham Children’s Hospital through Birmingham Health Partners, but continue to work with other outstanding local NHS partners including Birmingham Women’s Hospital, Heart of England, the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital and Sandwell & West Birmingham. This is part of a broader network consolidated in the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network. Our success in effectively integrating our research with NHS-based research activities is also reflected by the fact that 16 of 21 NIHR Comprehensive Local Research Network (CLRN) leads for Birmingham & Black Country are University of Birmingham staff.

Our applied work is often user-initiated, with clinicians – including both public health and primary care clinicians, and external collaborators – identifying research issues that will provide greatest potential benefit to patients and other clients within the NHS.

MRC Translational Roadmap Peer Review "Birmingham is one of the very few centres internationally that can complete the full circle of Translational Medicine"

Institute of Translational Medicine

The Institute of Translational Medicine (ITM) is a place where scientists, researchers, clinicians and industry partners can come together to turn medical science into innovative patient and healthcare system applications, rapidly, rigorously and seamlessly.

Located on the University of Birmingham campus between the Medical School and Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, the funding for the ITM, supported by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (now the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy), was the beginning of a major investment plan that will see Birmingham transformed into a global hub of life sciences enterprise.

This cutting-edge development that offers access to world-class laboratory and meeting facilities, University of Birmingham and other university expertise, the Birmingham Health Partners hospitals, and the diverse Birmingham population for robust clinical trials. It will also house device simulation facilities, the first robotics pharmacy dedicated to clinical trials and imaging facilities (COBALT).

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