NCA Research & Innovation

27/04/2026

Runner Gaby Kalra has given a generous boost to the Donal O’Donoghue Renal Research Centre at Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust by completing the prestigious Rome Marathon.
In an amazing effort, she completed her first marathon in 3 hours and 56 minutes, raising around £1,700 for research at the centre.
Prof O’Donoghue, the first national clinical director for kidney care and former president of the UK Kidney Association , died in January 2021. For nearly 30 years at Salford Royal, he championed kidney patients, modernised care, and supported world-leading research. His dedication to improving diagnosis, care and treatment for kidney patients now continues at the centre, which is led by his long-time colleague Prof Phil Kalra, Gaby’s father.

24/04/2026

The GM Motor Neurone Disease Partnership has its next meeting on Friday 8 May. It's open to clinical and academic colleagues with an interest in MND, voluntary and charitable organisations, patients and carers. See details in poster on how to register.
MND Association Manchester & District Branch
Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust

23/04/2026

Congratulations to Professor Paul Dark, who has been appointed as academic director at Health Innovation Manchester.
He will assist with the integration of world‑class research with the NHS and social care across Greater Manchester, driving innovation and aligning research activity with population needs.
Prof Dark is an honorary critical care consultant at Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust as well as a senior clinical academic leader at The University of Manchester with extensive experience across higher education and healthcare.
His work has included improving the diagnosis and management of severe infections and sepsis, including the development of new point of care technologies in partnership with industry.
He has held several senior national academic leadership roles, including serving as NIHR Clinical Research Network’s National Deputy Medical Director from 2022 to 2024 and as NIHR National Specialty Lead for Critical Care.

22/04/2026

Our research star of the month at The Royal Oldham Hospital is dedicated research nurse Angiy Vian-Michael who's worked tirelessly to increase engagement with research within the emergency department. Many studies are now open and recruiting and there is an increasing portfolio of studies.
Colleagues say they benefit from her in-depth knowledge in research and they are hugely impressed by her drive and energy in introducing studies, recruiting patients, and getting staff involved in research activities. She is the primary advocate for the TiLLI study, making sure eligible patients are included in a timely manner and clinicians are well supported. She has also encouraged colleagues to apply for the NIHR's Associate PI programme.
Above all, she always shows that behind all her endeavours, her main goal is for patient safety and care. The department is blessed to have her!

21/04/2026

Eight patients have been treated at Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA) in the world’s first-in-human study of graphene-brain interfaces to map and monitor brain activity and so improve precision during brain tumour surgery.
The study, sponsored by The University of Manchester and conducted with NCA, evaluated INBRAIN Neuroelectronics’ graphene-based cortical interface device. It showed a favourable perioperative safety profile with no device-related adverse events observed in all eight patients treated up to surgical discharge.
In the study, INBRAIN’s graphene electrodes were used alongside standard-of-care monitoring systems during tumour surgery. In select cases involving awake surgery, patients performed tasks such as naming objects, enabling researchers to evaluate the system’s performance to decode speech representation in the brain in high resolution.
Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this important work, including the teams at Manchester Centre for Clinical Neurosciences, Geoffrey Jefferson Brain Research Centre, NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), investigators Kostas Kostarelos and David Coope, and the patients and their families.
Photo of surgeons David Coope and Helen Maye by Rebecca Simpson from NCA clinical photography team.

20/04/2026

Clinicians should use their own expert judgement and not rely on AI to predict how patients will recover from total knee replacement operations, new research suggests.
Colleagues from Salford Royal’s trauma and orthopaedics department carried out the study looking at how accurate a popular AI model was in forecasting how much movement patients would have in their knees six weeks after their surgery. This information could be useful to inform clinical counselling or decision-making before this common operation, which is an effective treatment for advanced knee osteoarthritis.
The research team looked at the recovery of 160 patients who had total knee replacements at Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust . They used GPT-5 mini AI model to predict flexion values – how much patients could bend their knee, decreasing the angle between the thigh and the shin.
When they compared the predictions with the actual movement each patient was able to reach, they found the AI model significantly overestimated flexion. This applied across most age groups, diabetic and non-diabetic patients, smokers and non-smokers.
The greatest inaccuracies occurred in younger, healthier patients.
Senior author, surgeon Mr Ihab Boutros said: “Our findings indicate that AI is a poor substitute for our current ways of planning postoperative management and should not be used for this purpose.”
Matthew Earnashaw, Hassan Shadad, Abed Alnsour, Damien Mony, Afolabi Olapade-Ayomidele, Usama Yaseen, Ihab Boutros: Accuracy of the GPT-5 Mini in predicting six week postoperative knee flexion following total knee replacement: A retrospective cohort study has been published in Cureus medical journal.
https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.102196

20/04/2026

Lots of insight and encouragement here from research-active health visitor Ruth Haas Eckersley in her blog for the Institute of Health Visiting on genomics. As she says, genomics is transforming healthcare, now and in the future, and reflects the NHS 10-Year Health Plan's emphasis on prevention within healthcare.

We are delighted to share this iHV Voices Blog by Ruth Haas Eckersley, Specialist Health Visitor SEND, Screening link Coordinator and iHV Fellowship Scholar, Northern Care Alliance.
Ruth shares her journey with genomics and how becoming an iHV Genomics Ambassador, with its health-visiting‑focused introduction, made genomics feel relevant and accessible rather than overwhelming. Genomics is transforming healthcare, now and in the future, and Ruth strongly encourages all health visitors to engage in this important topic.
https://buff.ly/m3WPSUo

17/04/2026

Remember this? As the news reported yesterday, the rollout of Covid vaccines – the largest immunisation programme in UK history - has been called an "extraordinary feat", by the Covid inquiry.
Its report praised the speed in which jabs were developed and deployed – 132 million were given in 2021 - alongside how the UK discovered which treatments worked best against the virus.
We are incredibly grateful to all those who contributed to this effort - our research participants, colleagues delivering vaccines as part of the research studies and the many teams supporting them behind the scenes at Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust. as well as the team at the venue Oldham Leisure Centre.
We're proud to look back on our part in this extraordinary effort and to remember the special camaraderie as we worked together to protect communities and save lives.

15/04/2026

Our Bury research star of the month is research practitioner Sakib Mahmood who works in the neurology research team at Fairfield General Hospital. Most of our research patients have Parkinson’s disease or related conditions and as such, many are older and frailer. Sakib really does go above and beyond for these patients on clinical trials, showing exceptional kindness, reassurance and empathy. On more than one occasion, he has delivered things to patients' homes to save them having to attend the unit which can be a daunting prospect for these frail patients. Thank you Sakib!

14/04/2026

Professor Lesley Rhodes gave TV viewers an insight into the impact of sunlight-induced disorders when she appeared on the flagship ITV show, This Morning on Friday.

Prof Rhodes joined her former patient Sonal Keay in the studio to discuss the businesswoman's condition chronic actinic dermatitis, where any exposure to light causes a painful allergic reaction in her skin. The condition is extremely rare and can mean that she's forced to spend days at a time confined to a dark room.

Prof Rhodes, an honorary consultant dermatologist at Salford Royal (part of -care-alliance-nhs-foundation-trust) , professor of dermatology and photobiology at The University of Manchester and lead for the photodermatoses research programme at the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre, diagnosed Sonal back in 1997.

Professor Rhodes said: "I was delighted to have this opportunity to share information about these rare and distressing sunlight-induced conditions and to meet with Sonal again. Our diagnostic and research programmes in Manchester have helped to identify emerging treatments and we're hopeful that in future we can reduce the impact of many forms of photosensitivity."

10/04/2026

Please register by tomorrow if you would like to have your child or young person aged 2-27 screened for type 1 diabetes at our event at St Saviour's Church, Ringley on Saturday 18 April. Details in image.
The consent process takes around 10 minutes, and you will receive a confirmation email once completed. Please note - when selecting which location you would like to have the testing (at the end of the consent form) please follow these options:
1. Community clinic
2. ‘no’ to outpatient clinic
3. Select St Saviour’s Church

09/04/2026

Best of luck to consultant neurologist Dr Mike Kemp, who is taking on not just one but two marathons in the space of seven weeks to support the MND Association.
He's running the Tokyo and Boston marathons to complete the World Marathon Majors Six Star Challenge (London, Chicago, Berlin, New York, Tokyo, and Boston).
He started running during the pandemic for the physical and mental health benefits of exercise and has also supported Bliss the prematurity charity, East Cheshire Hospice and the Stroke Association with previous runs.
He said: "For the culmination of this challenge I've chosen the MND Association as two members of my running club are sadly currently battling this cruel disease and the work MNDA does in support of the individuals, their families, carers, and supporting research and development of care is immense.
"My journey had its own neurological bump in the road as my six star journey was interrupted part way through with a slipped disc and it was Mr Ahmed Abou-Zeid with an endoscopic microdiscectomy who at the beginning of 2024 got me back on my feet and back into my running shoes - Boston will be my fourth marathon since."
His JustGiving link is: https://www.justgiving.com/page/mikerunsboston2026