Research Nurse/Practitioner

ethics applications and handle amendments

Attend multi-disciplinary meetings, and

appropriate clinics, and to act as a resource to the members of the

multidisciplinary team

Liaise with laboratory researchers and clinical

study personnel both within the department and outside the hospital, as

necessary

We are looking for an enthusiastic Research

Nurse/Practitioner to drive the AdipoRedOx study, which

investigates the mechanisms by which adipose tissue, the vascular tissue and

the heart muscle interact. The AdipoRedOx study is part of the Oxford

Heart, Vessels, and Fat cohort (Ox-HVF).

This is a flagship programme that has, so far, recruited >1,600 patients

undergoing cardiac surgery, and has built the worlds largest and most

sophisticated clinical cohort, with biopsies (and relative -omics data) from 6

different adipose tissue depots, arteries, veins and myocardial tissue and ex vivo phenotypic characterization of

all these samples. The cohort has linked up to 15 years outcomes data through

UK national databases (NHS Digital) and repeated Computed Tomography

Angiography imaging data for disease progression.

The ox-HVF Radiotranscriptomic library is

the largest platform linking transcriptomic with radiomic data, and offers

unique opportunities for the use of artificial intelligence models in the

development of new imaging biomarkers and the discovery of novel therapeutic

targets in cardiovascular medicine. Work from the Ox-HVF cohort has indeed resulted

in the development of a technology called Fat Attenuation Indexing (FAI), which

was found to predict heart attacks years in advance (Lancet 2018 & 2024).

This technology has received significant press coverage when it was first

described in Science Transl Med 2017 in Financial times, BBC News, NBC,

Guardian and others.

project is funded by the British Heart Foundation. The successful candidate

will take day-to-day responsibility for the operational delivery of the

AdipoRexOx study and HVF cohort. They will screen and recruit eligible

participants into the study arms, organise and/or perform imaging scans (e.g.

ultrasound and CT scans), obtain and process blood samples, contribute to

biological samples collection from surgical theatres, organise follow up

appointments and perform other tasks relevant to the research (e.g. prepare

ethics applications, data entry into the databases, image analysis etc). The

Research Nurse/Practitioner will also be expected to contribute to the

management of the study, accompany some of the participants for their scans to

other study centres and handle the master files of the projects.

Recruit

and screen new participants in order to establish their eligibility and safety

to enter the study and to register participants into studies

Facilitate

the informed consent process and provide ongoing information, education and

support to participants

Perform

ultrasound measurements on recruited participants as required by the study

protocols

Collect

and process blood and other samples as required by the study protocols

Organise

Computed Tomography scans and accompany participants to the study sites

Provide

ongoing follow up care whilst a participant is in the clinical study

Accurately

document data collected into the case report forms and to ensure that clinical

study recruitment records are accurately maintained

ethics applications and handle amendments

Attend multi-disciplinary meetings, and

appropriate clinics, and to act as a resource to the members of the

multidisciplinary team

Liaise with laboratory researchers and clinical

study personnel both within the department and outside the hospital, as

necessary

approximately 200 people across a range of staff groups and locations and has a

total turnover of approximately £18M per annum of which external grants amount

to around £10M, with a total grant portfolio of around £70M. Professor

Stefan Neubauer is the Head of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine.

Division was returned as part of the Clinical Medicine unit of assessment in

the 2021 REF, with 59% of research in this area rated as 4* (the highest

quality, defined as world-leading) and a further 34% returning a 3* rating

(internationally excellent).

The molecular genetics and model

organism programmes are based in laboratories at the Centre for Human Genetics and close links are maintained

with the epidemiological work of the Clinical Trials Service Unit (CTSU) in the adjacent building

(both on the Old Road Campus site). CV Meds base, together with

laboratories for molecular and cellular studies, is housed in the West Wing of

the John Radcliffe Hospital. Clinical research is also based at the John

Radcliffe, currently largely focused around the Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance

Research (OCMR),

the Acute

Multidisciplinary Imaging and Interventional Centre (AMIIC), and Cardiovascular Clinical Research Facility (CCRF) which are all classified as

Small Research facilities (SRFs).

For

more information please visit: http://www.cardiov.ox.ac.uk

Knowledge and Skills

Desirable: - A basic understanding of the pathophysiology of cardiovascular diseases and their management

Experience

Essential: - Experience in cardiac and/or vascular ultrasound and medical image analysis; - Experience in recruiting patients to clinical studies

Desirable: - Demonstrable experience of handling ethics applications

Qualifications

Essential: - Registered Nurse, Radiographer, or Physiologist