The Primary Care Clinical Research & Trials Unit (PC-CRTU) has been conducting clinical trials since 1985 and has an excellent track record in designing, implementing, coordinating, monitoring, analysing and publishing trials.
Housed in the prestigious University of Birmingham, the PC-CRTU has strong links to West Midlands PCTs and Secondary Care Trusts. The PC-CRTU has developed excellent relationships with local networks of Primary Care Cancer, Mental Health, Medicine for Children, Stroke and the CLRN.
The PC-CRTU is one of the largest and longest running academic primary care facilities in Europe for clinical trials in the community. It is an expert central facility for coordinating large or small community-based clinical trials (selection, recruitment, training, randomisation, data monitoring and data validation).
The PC-CRTU has an R&D facilitation team with clinical (general practice and nursing) and methodological (statistics, epidemiology, ethics) expertise as well as a range of technical skills (IT, statistics, ethics and health sciences, research training, database management, clinical trial fieldwork, and research administration).
The aims of the PC-CRTU are:
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To deliver high quality research in community-based settings
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To enable primary care teams to participate in relevant and timely research
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To facilitate quality assurance in the execution of research in general practice
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To help individuals working in primary care to develop their research skills