Who we work with
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust’s key vision is “great healthcare from great people” and to support this we aim to “make a difference to the experience and outcomes of health care to the people of Kent, the NHS and internationally through Research, Inquiry and Innovation. Our strength is the dedication of our researchers and supporting staff, and the excellent working environments within our research teams.
At a strategic level East Kent Hospitals works closely with our two local Universities – University of Kent, including Medway School of Pharmacy and Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU).
East Kent Hospitals are part of the Applied Research Collaboration Kent, Surrey, Sussex (ARC-KSS), which is one of 15 ARCs across England, part of a £135 million investment by the NIHR to improve the health and care of patients and the public.
Several Trust staff hold joint appointments between our organisation and our local Universities. In addition, many of our clinicians are actively collaborating with local University academics on multidisciplinary research projects from basic laboratory studies through to late phase interventional studies in patients, or to put in another way, ‘from bench to bedside’. The scope of our joint working extends in other directions as well, for example how we better equip our workforce for the challenges of the future. Most importantly, however, is that all our joint working is focused on delivering our vision to improve health and care outcomes for the people of East Kent and beyond.
Our academic collaborations are not limited to East Kent. We have strengths in many different disciplines, which enables interesting and constructive collaborative work. We also enjoy strategic and collaborative partnerships with academics and clinicians in other universities, as well as NHS Trusts.
Currently our staff collaborate with colleagues in North America, Australasia, various European countries, countries in the Indian Subcontinent, and many organisations across the UK including University College London, Goldsmiths College. Click here to visit the "Who We Work With" page
Our areas of work
The areas in which we currently lead projects nationally or internationally constantly evolve, but areas where we have a particularly strong reputation for this include: kidney disease; rare bleeding disorders, including haemophilia; engineering and assistive technologies; neuro-rehabilitation; health informatics and modelling; orthodontics and gynaecological cancer. We are constantly seeking to develop new areas of research, and further information about this can be found on our ‘Our Areas of Research’ page.
Our local population
The catchment population of East Kent Hospitals is approximately 775,000 people, although some of our services – haemophilia, renal (kidney) disease and vascular surgery – extend their reach into West Kent & Medway and beyond. Besides being one of the largest counties in England and highly geographically dispersed, there are considerable pockets of deprivation and unmet need within our catchment.
Importantly, for those considering undertaking research with us, Kent Surrey & Sussex is recognised as have the lowest levels of participation in NIHR Portfolio studies (8000 per million population, compared to an England median of approximately 13,500 PMP in 2017-18). Therefore, unlike some parts of England which are potentially ‘research saturated’, Kent offers considerable untapped resource as far as potential research participation is concerned.
