TEACHING & RESEARCH AT BEDFORD MEDICAL CENTRE

TEACHING
The doctors and nurses at the surgery are often involved in teaching younger colleagues such as
medical students and trainee GPs and nurses Thank you for generally being willing to support us in helping
to train the next generation of medics.

Sometimes, it is natural that our patients want to consult their doctor or nurse without a student present.
Please just say at Reception of you prefer to see your usual GP without a student or trainee being present.

RESEARCH

RESEARCH
We believe that good medical practice needs to be based on sound research, so that we understand as much as possible
about how we become sick and what works to make us healthier.

This practice is an active member of the UCD GP Research Network, the Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) Sentinel Network
and the Northeastern GP Training Programme.

These links allow us to undertake research and quality improvement projects to enhance medical knowledge and the way we
work for you.

We may invite you to participate in a project where a researcher would like to see your file or talk to you. For these projects we will
always ask for your consent first.

For some other research and quality assurance projects, involving large numbers of patients we might wish to use some anonymised information
from your personal record for our study. Anonymised means that your name, address and date of birth are never shared, just the information in your file that is of interest to our research

Examples of the kind of information we mean by this might be your cholesterol level or weight, the length of time you have been a patient, your prescribed medication or whether you have been vaccinated. Because the information is anonymised, no one will be able to link the information we use from your file to you as a person. An example of a research prohect of this sort might include our studying whether we are giving as many seasonal ‘flu vaccines as we are supposed to or whether our patients with diabetes are as well cared for as they should be or whether patients treated by us for high blood pressure are reaching the targets expected for good control or again, what sort of illnesses we are treating in our minor surgery clinics etc.

For these kinds of projects, we sometimes will not ask you to consent to our using your information but would ask you to tell us if you object to our ever using these sorts of details from your file, even if they are never linked to you as an identifiable person. This is called opting out. All you have to do is tell us and we will never include your information. You could email us, write to us or tell any of the doctors that you do not wish to participate.

Please feel free to tell your doctor or nurse if you would like to know more about our research activities.

We are here to help you with your illness and we believe that teaching and research makes us better at doing that.

However,it is your choice not to be involved in teaching or to participate in research and we guarantee that this will not affect the care we give you.
Research and teaching are just a small part of what we do

ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS

1. A STUDY OF PROSTATE CANCER SCREENING TESTS 2009-2019
   Prostate cancer is very common but is mostly a mild, non-fatal disease. Since the 1980s the PSA blood test has been used quite widely in an attempt to spot the earliest sign of this cancer. Unfortunately, the test is not very effective and doctors are debating whether or not we should be routinely doing these tests at all.
   
   Dr Niall Maguire is conducting a look-back at all the prostate screening tests (PSA tests) ordered for patients at the surgery. This study is aiming to describe the age at which mean have screening, the number of abnormal tests we have found and what has happened to those patients over time.
   
   We hope that this information might chnage the way we order tests at this clinic and contribute to current discussions about whether and how we could screen for this common cancer.
   
   The information for this research does not include your name, address or date of birth. We will extract anonymised  information only.
   
   This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the ICGP
   
2. A STUDY OF THE ROLL OUT OF THE CHRNIC DISEASE MANAGEMENT (CDM ) HEALTH CHECKS AT THIS CLINIC 2020-2022
   Dr Niall Maguire (GP) and Mr Krzysztof Fic (Nurse Practitioner) are working with colleagues at the Irish College of General Practitioners to determine the numbers of patients we are treating, the progress those patients are making with their chronic illness and to describe any treatments that we are offering.
   
   The information for this extra research does not include your name, address or date of birth. We will extract anonymised  information only and it will be studied by no more than four researchers including Dr Maguire and Nurse Fic.  This information is therefore anonymised and could not be traced back to you. The results of our study will be presented at medical conferences and published in a medical journal. There will be no identifying information collected, analysed, presented or published.
   You can read more about this research here: Information for Patients
   
   This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the ICGP.
   
   
3. A STUDY OF INGROWN TOE-NAIL SURGERY 2020-2023
   
   Dr Cgukwudi Ugezu, Regisrar to Dr Joan Gilsenan and Dr Niall Maguire are undertaking a survey of patients’ stasifaction with their toenail surgery
   and a study of how well their operaiton worked for them.
   
   If we are hoping to use your information, we will have sent you a text message asking you to opt-in to the reseaech by reading the patient information leaflet below and then by completing our survey.
   
   We are awaiting approval from the Research Ethics Committee of the ICGP for this study.
   
   If you have received an invitation to partiicpate you are invited to read the information leaflet for participants here: Information for Patients Invited to Participate.