GenOMICC is one of our many research studies in Edinburgh that everyone enjoys working on. On our busy intensive care unit it is great to have a study that is easy to recruit patients into. It gives us great satisfaction that from one blood or saliva test such important information can be gained about the patients’ DNA and genetics. Patients on our intensive care and high dependency unit often find information about research studies too difficult to understand when they are feeling unwell, however with GenOMICC the information is very straightforward.
GenOMICC allows us to wait until the patient goes to the ward and is feeling better which is ideal for patients that are critically ill. Not many studies allow this flexibility. GenOMICC also gives another option is asking relatives to consent on behalf of the patient which is often necessary in the critical care environment. Both these strategies help us maximise recruitment. We screen 7 days a week for GenOMICC and have recruited a total of 285 patients here in Edinburgh. Throughout the pandemic we aimed to recruit every patient with covid that was admitted and looking back we did an amazing job at this! We are pleased to have helped contribute to such ground breaking research within this field.
