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Four investigators based at the Botnar Research Centre, NDORMS have been recently awarded National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) fellowships to further our understanding of a variety of musculoskeletal conditions and develop better methodology to support medical research.

Lead researchers (from left to right): Professor Daniel Prieto-Alhambra, Maria Dudereva, Ioana Marian, Simon Wood

The success of our researchers reflects their commitment to delivering innovative solutions to important health problems and methodological gaps, as well as the department's supportive culture at all levels.

"These four NIHR awards are a huge success to the Botnar. This demonstrates that we can provide support for our staff at different stages of their career. We are grateful to be able to provide a support network that allows the future leaders in the field to success", says Dr Sonja Pawelczyk, Botnar Research Centre Administrator at NDORMS.

Professor Daniel Prieto-Alhambra
NIHR Senior Fellowship

“This NIHR Senior Research Fellowship provides me with the space, time, and funding to continue growing as an independent researcher. In the coming five years I will leverage pseudonymised NHS computerised medical records to investigate the risk-benefit and costs of preventative therapies in older people with complex health needs. I am looking forward to improving care for these patients with our upcoming research.”

Maria Dudereva
NIHR Doctoral Fellowship

“The NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship is a brilliant opportunity that I will use to explore how best to improve the prognosis for people with bone and joint infections, without resorting to longer courses of antibiotics, which can cause serious side effects and antibiotic resistance. These infections pose a real threat to people’s recovery and quality of life and this project will bring some much-needed solutions to this serious health problem.”

Ioana Marian
NIHR Pre-Doctoral Fellowship

“Randomised Controlled Trials using a factorial design have the advantage of assessing two or more interventions within the same research study. Such trials can therefore provide evidence of efficacy with fewer study participants than would be needed if the interventions were tested in separate trials. An important underlying assumption is that the effects of the different interventions are independent of each other. This brings specific complexity to the design, analysis and reporting of these trials. 

Having spent time providing statistical support on an ongoing factorial trial, this fellowship will enable me to really understand the challenges associated with this type of design. Ownership of a research project will also help me become a stronger candidate for a doctoral application in the statistical research field.”

Simon Wood
NIHR Pre-Doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship

“My long term career objective was to study for a PhD and I was finally awarded the NIHR  pre-doctoral clinical research fellowship. This  will enable me to prepare a submission for a PhD looking into the physiotherapy arm of the Femoral Acetabular Impingement Trial (FAIT). The aim is  to explore why some patients responded well to conservative treatment and some didn’t and therefore identify a sub-group of patients that we can refer to physiotherapy rather than surgery.”

The NIHR is the UK’s largest funder of health and care research and aims to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research.