Hello, my name is David Arnold, I'm a Respiratory Doctor here at Southmead Hospital and part of the NBT COVID-19 Research Team.

The research response at NBT to COVID-19 has been amazing, with nearly every patient recruited to at least one of our open clinical studies. One of these studies is called the DISCOVER study which is NBT led and set up by me and one of the Microbiology Doctors, Fergus Hamilton.

The Southmead Hospital Charity is supporting us in continuing the DISCOVER study, which aims to analyse blood-based biomarkers from patients who are admitted with the coronavirus.

Because one of the really important decisions that healthcare professionals have to make when seeing a patient with COVID-19 is who can be safely discharged home to recover there and who needs to be admitted to hospital for closer monitoring and support.

But we can do so much more with these samples as well. And with collaborations with the University of Bristol's UNCOVER group, as well as Public Health England, we can look at immunity following the virus, as well as secondary infections and respiratory compromise when people are recovering.

Of those who participated in the DISCOVER study, researchers have found that three quarters of the group who received care for COVID-19 were still suffering ongoing symptoms three months later.

• 81 out of 110 discharged patients were still experiencing symptoms such as breathlessness, excessive fatigue and muscle aches when invited back to clinic.
• Many were also suffering from poor quality of life compared to the rest of the population, struggling to carry out daily tasks such as washing, dressing or going back to work.

Most of the patients did, however, report improvements in their initial symptoms of fever, cough and loss of sense of smell. Reassuringly, the majority of patients had no evidence of lung scarring or reductions in lung function.

Speaking of the findings, Helen Lewis-White (Deputy Director Research & Innovation) said:

“There’s still so much we don’t know about the long term effects of coronavirus, but this study has given us vital new insight into what challenges patients may face in their recovery and will help us prepare for those needs. 

We’re pleased that researchers at Southmead Hospital are leading the way, and hope our findings can help patients and their GPs understand the course of post-COVID illness and the role of routine tests."

To find out more about these discoveries, read the full pre-print report.

Please note this is a preprint, so it is a preliminary piece of research that has not yet been through peer review and has not been published in a scientific journal – so this is early data.

The DISCOVER study followed a cohort of patients who were admitted with COVID-19 in 2020, many of whom remain highly symptomatic. It then compared those who received a vaccine to those who didn’t.

• 94% of participants had no worsening of symptoms after receiving the vaccine compared to 86% of unvaccinated sufferers from the same study.
• 23% of the patients with Long COVID actually saw an improvement in symptoms after receiving a vaccine, compared with 15% of the same Long COVID patient group who were unvaccinated.

The study follows uncertainty and concern amongst Long COVID sufferers on the impact the vaccine may have on their symptoms, with anecdotal reports suggesting both worsening and improvement of symptoms.

The study has found that for patients suffering with Long COVID, receiving a COVID-19 vaccine did not worsen their symptoms, which will be of great reassurance to many.

Speaking of these findings, Dr Fergus Hamilton from North Bristol NHS Trust said:

“This is really positive news for those with Long COVID. This study confirms that the COVID-19 vaccines do not worsen symptoms with a hint that they could actually improve them for some people. We hope this provides reassurance for anyone with Long COVID who may have been hesitant to get the vaccine, and we would encourage everyone to get the jab when invited.”

To find out more about these discoveries, read the full pre-print report.

Please note this is a preprint, so it is a preliminary piece of research that has not yet been through peer review and has not been published in a scientific journal – so this is early data.

Lead Research Nurse

Becky currently works as the Lead Research Nurse for Urology at Southmead Hospital, managing a team of 6 highly competent research practitioners. Prior to her training, she completed her degree in Biomedical Sciences and Masters of Research at Cardiff University. Having qualified as an adult nurse from City University in 2013, she began working on a complex older adult ward at Whipps Cross Hospital, London. Whilst working in a clinical role she became focused on making an impact on quality of life through her job and keen to identify ways she could use her skills in research. After seeing an advert for the Huntington’s Disease (HD) research team at Cardiff University, she headed back to Wales in 2014 taking on a full-time role as a research nurse. She led on drug trials, longitudinal and academic studies, for which she gained a deep interest and passion. She joined North Bristol NHS Trust in 2019 as a research nurse with the ReMemBr group, focussing her passion for dementia research. Recently, she took a new path and joined the Urology Research team as the team lead, focusing on expanding the research portfolio and delivering a first in human catheter study. Becky has a keen interest in quality of life research, focussing on how we value people living in residential care. She is driven to see her team succeed; pursue their own research ideas and become highly qualified health-care professionals.

Research Nurse

Marta joined the Urology Research team in May 2021 and works primarily in functional urology. She qualified as a Registered Nurse in 2018 at the University of the West of England. Previously she worked as a recovery nurse in Medirooms at NBT where she covered different surgical specialities including urology. Her interest in research started during her student days when she had a placement with the research team. Since then, her passion about finding out about the latest treatment options for her patients and further understanding patient diagnoses and disease prevention has grown.

Research Nurse

Victoria is the newest member of the Urology research team, having joined in June 2021. She has a degree in Medical Physiology from the University of Leicester, and in Adult Nursing from the University of Birmingham, and qualified as a nurse in 2014. Victoria has worked mostly in London, initially in Intensive Care at Kings College Hospital, before moving to Neonatal Intensive Care at St Georges Hospital. While this is the first role Victoria has had in research, it has been an area of great interest to her for many years, and she is passionate about pursuing a role in developing and improving the care available to people. Victoria works primarily in functional urology, on the PriMUS and PURSUIT trials.

Research Administrator

Liz  joined the Urology Research team in April 2024 as a research administrator. Her role involves assisting the team with the daily administrative elements of running clinical research studies, helping with diary management, data entry and queries, document management and archiving, study finances and liaising with external sponsors. 

Consultant Breast Care Surgeon

Miss Sasirekha Govindarajulu has worked in the Breast Unit at Southmead Hospital Bristol for the past 12 years and maintained the highest possible standard of care for patients, always seeking to improve the experience of patients.

With continuing interest in research, publications and lecture tours maintained high standards of care for patients: Faculty of the national ultrasound course, Faculty of the National vacuum assisted mammotomy training course, National peer review panel, Faculty National Survivorship Programme Patient User and information lead for ASWCS network.

As an Audit Lead of the breast unit, Miss Govindarajulu is always passionate about standards and excellence of care.

Her clinical interests are diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, including surgery for breast cancer and reconstructive surgery, sentinel node biopsy for breast cancer assessment, diagnosis and management of all benign problems including breast pain. Miss Govindarajulu is also experienced in performing diagnostic breast and axillary ultrasound, diagnostic and therapeutic ultrasound guided interventional procedures, ultrasound guided minimally invasive procedures for therapeutic excision of benign lumps using vacuum assisted procedure and radio frequency ablation, and localising small lesions with ultrasound. 

Her clinical interests also include latissimus dorsi breast reconstruction, all implant-based reconstructions including use of acellular dermal matrix, breast reduction and augmentation, and symmetrisation procedures and other onco-plastic procedures.

Consultant Breast Care Radiologist

• FRCR
• Consultant Radiologist with subspecialty interest in Breast Radiology
• Clinical Governance lead of Breast Care Unit
• Principal Investigator of Mammo-50 Trial
• Educational Supervisor

Consultant Breast Care Radiologist

Alexandra was appointed as a Consultant Radiologist at the Bristol Royal Infirmary and Avon Breast Screening in 2006, and was Director of Screening from 2012-2019, co-leading on the centralisation of breast services in Bristol. She was Clinical Lead for the Bristol Breast Care Centre from 2018-2020, and has been a Professional Clinical Advisor for PHE since 2014. Alexandra is currently a member of the Breast Screening Clinical Professional Group and the Clinical Advisory Group. Her main interests are Breast MR and breast interventional procedures as well as Quality Assurance in the NHSBSP and increasing the efficiency of breast screening and symptomatic pathways.

Oncoplastic Breast Consultant

Michelle qualified from the University of Bristol in 1995 and underwent her surgical training in Bristol and the West Midlands. She has always been interested in breast disease and undertook research at The Royal Surrey County Hospital in sentinel lymph node biopsy, as part of the Medical Research Council ALMANAC Trial. Michelle has been appointed as a Trustee for the Association of Breast Surgery and sits on the Clinical Practices and Standards Committee.

Her advanced surgical training in Oncoplastic Breast Surgery was in the UK and the United States, practising at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the Henry Ford Institute in Detroit. She was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2006. In 2008 Miss Mullan won the European Society of Surgical Oncology Travelling Scholarship and spent her time at the Nottingham Breast Institute. Her first consultant appointment was in Worcestershire in 2008, where she was Lead Cancer Clinician for the county. She was appointed to her current position as an Oncoplastic Breast Consultant at North Bristol NHS Trust in 2019.

Her clinical interests include breast cancer surgery using oncoplastic techniques (surgery with minimal scarring), sentinel lymph node biopsy, lipofilling of breast defects (Colman fat transfer), breast reconstruction, nipple reconstruction and nipple tattooing.

Breast Care Senior Research Nurse

Breast Care Research Nurse

Breast Care Research Nurse

Breast Care Research Nurse

Breast Care Research Admin

Senior Research Midwife

Mary qualified as a midwife in 1991 and has worked at NBT since qualifying. Marys research career began in January 2015 when she was given the lead midwife role on the IMox study; she was subsequently promoted to the role of senior research midwife in 2017. Mary is also a faculty member of PROMPT maternity Foundation, a research champion for the West of England and is an alumni of the NIHR’s Advanced Leadership Programme. Mary aims to create a research culture at NBT where research is seen as ‘everyone’s daily business’ and where all women will have an opportunity to engage with world class research. Mary recently completed an MScR award with the University of Bristol. Using qualitative data from the women and midwives who participated in the ASSIST II study integrated qualitative study, Mary produced and will publish a framework to ensure that recruitment to intrapartum research is a whole pregnancy process, is fair and woman centred.

Senior Research Midwife

Nicky was a clinical midwife for 16 years before entering research in 2016, to lead on a large intrapartum study at the Great Western Hospital, Swindon.  From this, she developed a keen interest in research processes and the difference research can make to both current and future patients.  Keen to pursue this as a new career pathway, Nicky took a fixed term research contract at North Bristol NHS Trust, which was made permanent in October 2019.  From March 2019 Nicky has been substantively employed as a Senior Research Midwife, jointly leading the Womens’ and Childrens’ research team of nurses and midwives.  The growing portfolio covers studies in maternity, gynaecology and NICU and is successfully expanding in breadth and depth.  Nicky is also a Midwifery Research Champion working with a national network of midwives and nurses representing all Clinical Research Network regions and the devolved nations. 

Research Midwife

Annie has worked in research delivery across multiple studies for over seven years and witnessed first-hand how research improves the health and wellbeing of women and children in maternity services. She acknowledges that women need to be given the highest quality evidence to make decisions about their care and this can only be achieved through an NHS trust that is research active with motivated staff. She feels privileged to work in such an environment.

With 38 years of nursing and midwifery experience prior to entering the world of research, I have had the opportunity to use my clinical knowledge to support women considering and participating in research to make an informed choice when they become involved in the research process.

Research Midwife

Naomi joined the Women and Children’s Health research team in 2016 and brought with her a wealth of clinical midwifery
experience. She qualified as a midwife in 2002 focussing on mainly providing care to families within the labour ward and
antenatal settings. 

Naomi is a core member of the W&C research team and has engaged families in a wide range of maternity, gynaecology,
reproductive health and more recently, neonatal research studies. Naomi helps provide a link between the community and hospital settings by regularly attending NBT’s antenatal classes, giving families the opportunity to learn more about research much earlier in their pregnancies. 

She is keen to share the positive impact research can have on health care and recognises the wide range of benefits that 
taking part in research offers to patients, staff and NBT.

Research Midwife

Katie qualified as a Midwife in 2016 after studying for her midwifery degree at the University of the West of England. Since then she worked as a rotational Midwife at the Great Western Hospital in Swindon and completed two secondments to the Midwife led birth unit there. Katie joined the Women and Children’s research department on secondment in October 2019 to work on the AKID study, investigating Acute Kidney Injury and Diabetes in pregnancy. Katie is passionate about evidence based practice and the positive impact research can have on improving patient care.

Research Midwife

Anne is a midwife with extensive clinical experience particularly in intrapartum care. She is passionate about research and has previously been involved in Women and Children’s studies as a series of secondments before being welcomed to the team in a permanent role in 2021. Joining at an exciting time of expansion for Maternity Research at NBT, Anne particularly enjoys building relationships with the women and their families who are so enthusiastic about participating in studies. She is looking forward to the team continuing to expand their research portfolio and striving to lead pioneering research and improve care for generations to come.

Research Midwife

Rachel has enjoyed a varied midwifery career since 2016, working in different midwifery roles at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She qualified as an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) in 2021. This process furthered her interest in women and children’s research. Rachel joined NBT in 2023. She is keen to ensure that the research process is available and accessible for all families with a baby in NICU. Rachel is enthusiastic about the impact research can have on health outcomes and in ensuring the highest quality, evidence-based compassionate care experience for families and those providing care.

Research Midwife

Paula is a Registered Nurse who also qualified as a midwife many years ago, and then developed a career in Neonatal Nursing.  She  joined the  Research Team with a wealth of clinical experience  to deliver Neonatal studies in 2021. Paula is passionate about expanding neonatal research, to ensure the care of  sick babies is evidence based  and of the highest quality.  She believes that every baby and every family have the right to take part in research.

Since joining the team 6 new national and international studies have opened, with the majority of parents willing to take part. The rapid expansion of projects has an impact on the workload  large neonatal clinical team and Paula is keen to train and motivate professionals, increasing awareness and knowledge to support the delivery of studies.

Research Midwife

Since qualifying as a Midwife in 2003, Michelle gained a wealth of experience in many clinical settings including Antenatal and Postnatal wards, Community and Central Delivery suite within United Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Trust. Michelle is passionate about the provision of high quality, evidence based care and recognises the fundamental role research plays in achieving this.  In 2022, Michelle decided to explore a more active role the world of NHS research and joined the Women's and Children's research department at North Bristol Trust.  Since joining, Michelle has worked on a variety of studies covering fertility and maternity care.  Michelle is enthusiastic about the promotion of embedding research into every day clinical care, ensuring opportunities are available to all women and their families.

Research Nurse

Ashleigh joined the Women and Children’s health research team in 2021. She is a qualified nurse with over 10 years of experience, she started her career in surgical admissions and went onto working in the Emergency department at Southmead Hospital. More recently Ashleigh started working in the fertility sector which led her to working in the Women and Children’s research team.

From personal and professional experience, Ashleigh is very passionate about fertility and women’s health research. When she first started working in research, she worked on the BRIST-IVF study, a study that looked to improve outcomes for couples undergoing IVF. Ashleigh now works with Katie on the Gynaecology research portfolio alongside the Gynaecology team on Cotswold Ward at Southmead Hospital.

Research Administrator

Sally joined North Bristol Trust in 2008 with an extensive secretarial and administrative background. She began working within the respiratory department and then transferred to the maternity Unit where she worked on Quantock Ward and Day Assessment Unit for 9 years as Ward Clerk. Sally joined the research department in 2017 as Trial Administrator for studies including Imox, Mifemiso, Parrot and ASSIST and ASSIST II. Her increasing knowledge of the Women & Children’s department and passion for research helps support and facilitate correct governance for studies within the maternity research department.

Research Midwife

Claudia is a Midwife that qualified in Chile in 2019, and has been in the UK since 2022. She has mainly worked in a central delivery suite setting and has recently joined the research team in November 2024. She is committed to improving maternal and neonatal outcomes by addressing disparities in care and reducing health inequalities through research and evidence-based practice.  

 Research Midwife

After graduating from The University of Nottingham in 2015, Laura worked as a midwife at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust before moving to NBT in 2016.  She has worked in all areas of clinical midwifery, both in the UK and abroad, with a particular focus on providing woman-centred intrapartum care in midwife-led settings. She has been a part of the Mendip Birth Centre and homebirth teams at NBT since 2018 and joined the Women’s and Children’s research team in 2024. She is passionate about women and their families receiving both evidence-based and individualised maternity care, and loves being able to support families who want to contribute to our knowledge and understanding of pregnancy and childbirth by participating in maternity research studies.

Research Administrator

Kody has been with the trust since 2023, utilizing their strong administrative and interpersonal skills to support the Urology department, where they assisted with clinic utilization, booked surgeries, and provided patient support. In late 2024, Kody transitioned to the Women's and Children's department as a research administrator, motivated by the significant impact research has as well as the trust's extensive research initiatives. Since joining, they have been actively involved in the DIVO, GENERATIONS, and PIONEER studies, and is looking forward to contributing to the department's ongoing research efforts.