Making translations of Participant Information Sheets available for the RECOVERY trial means patients from different backgrounds can take part, enhancing its overall rigour.
Date: 04 May 2020
As part of a new research partnership between London Metropolitan University and the Whittington Hospital NHS Trust, two researchers, Dr Stephen Hills (Guildhall School of Business and Law) and Dr Yolanda Eraso (School of Social Professions) have aided the efforts against COVID-19 by providing translation services in the clinical trial process.
Drs Eraso and Hills have been working to translate participant information sheets for the RECOVERY trial (randomised evaluation of COVID-19 therapy) taking place at Whittington Hospital.
RECOVERY is the world’s largest clinical trial on potential treatments for COVID-19. Launched across the UK in April 2020, the trial is testing existing medicines which may be beneficial to treat coronavirus. Adult patients who have been admitted to hospital with COVID-19 or suspected by their doctors to have the virus, are invited to participate on this trial in more than 170 NHS hospitals.
Informed consent forms must be signed by patients or their legal representatives in order to be able to enter in any clinical trial. The wide diversity of languages that are spoken in the Islington area prompted a search for volunteer translators within the London Metropolitan Translation team. Led by Danielle D’Hayer, Course Leader MA Interpreting, a group of professionals and their extended network volunteered to work on this relevant aspect of this trial.
Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, Farsi, Chinese and Arabic were amongst the languages that the team translated. Coordinated by the University of Oxford, RECOVERY is now able to recruit participants for whom English is not their first language.
Facilitating access to patients from different backgrounds and ethnicities to take part in this clinical trial is not only relevant to the health of patients, but to the rigour of the data overall.
