The WCMR Clinical Trials Team at Newcastle University are delighted to announce the activation of their most recent study, FiND. This new innovative study led by Dr Charlotte Warren aims to investigate the use of faecal tissue as a potential new method of diagnosing mitochondrial disease.

Methods currently used to diagnose mitochondrial disease, such as taking a muscle biopsy or blood samples, can be invasive, expensive, and often can only be performed in specialist centres. This study, which will be carried out in both adults and children, will assess if faecal samples taken from the participant at home using a specialised kit, can be used as a non-invasive alternative to currently used methods.

More uniquely, this study will fully utilise a Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) system – a web-based application used to collect data for clinical research. Working closely with the REDCap team, Charlotte and the clinical trials team have built a web tool that allows the management of every aspect of the study from recruitment, scheduling and carrying out consent appointments, to accessing and completing data entry forms. Because of this, the study will operate entirely on a remote basis which will fully mitigate the need for patients to be seen face to face. FiND is the first study in the WCMR to move to a completely remote environment.

Last month, the team had their first victory with this when Research Nurse Isabel Barrow successfully consented the first FiND study participant remotely!

This study has been registered at ISRCTN, to find out more please visit the ISRCTN website.