South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Hiring for Research Assistant Full Time

The post-holders will work on the NIHR funded research project “Clozapine in Early Psychosis (CLEAR)A multi-centre, randomised controlled trial of clozapine for young people with treatment resistant psychosis in real world settings’’. The post-holders will be pivotal to the success of the study. They will be responsible for the daily activities associated with the trial across London, Oxford and South West England, such as managing patient recruitment, collecting data (such as medical history, adverse events, patient rated outcomes, quality of life questionnaires), entering data onto the study database, setting up video links for participants to engage with the research psychiatrist and manage participant MRI scans and blood samples.

The post-holders will be responsible for the participants’ journey through the study from screening and consent, to baseline and follow-up study visits. Participants in this study will be age 12-25 years with schizophrenia. The post holders will be expected to travel to various recruitment sites across London, Oxford and South West England to meet with participants in person. Post-holders will liaise with clinicians at the recruitment sites to ensure eligible patients are provided with all the information they require to decide about participating in the study and consent. The post-holders will take details of medical history and adverse events, from both the participant and their medical records. They will carry out assessments including the Drug Attitude Inventory (DAI-10), Glasgow Antipsychotic Side-effect Scale for Clozapine (GASS-C), Clinician Rating Scale (CRS), Health-related quality of Life: EQ-5D-Y, Early Intervention Adult Service Use Schedule (EI-AD-SUS), and Recovering Quality of Life-10 items measure (ReQoL-10). The post holders will organise and facilitate MRI scans and taking of blood samples. The data will be entered onto a study laptop, and the post holders will set the laptop up for participants to join the research psychiatrist online.

The post-holders will work closely with the Chief Investigator Professor James MacCabe and Trial Manager Laura Marchant based at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London. The post-holders will work alongside the co-investigator Professor Santosh and child and adult psychiatrists based at South London and Maudsley and various clinicians based in London, Oxford and the South-West. The post-holders will form part of a team of RAs working across the UK at different sites. The post holders may on occasion be required to travel to assist with participants in another area of the UK (travel expenses will be paid in addition).

The main duties and responsibilities of the role include:
Recruit participants

Carry out various assessments

Lead on the collection and verification of data

Maintain the study database

Participate in regular project planning and team meetings

Undertake any other reasonable duties that may be relevant to the role

Organise and schedule participant visits and appointments

Be a point of contact for participants in the study and clinicians across sites

Facilitate MRI scans

Facilitate taking of blood samples