UK Multiple Long-Term Conditions Trials Collaborative (UK MTC) Team

Start date: 1 February 2025
End date: 31 January 2026
Funder: National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)
Value: £97,800
Partners and collaborators: Bradford Teaching Hospitals | NHS Foundation Trust, Brighton | Sussex Medical School | Keele University | University of Birmingham | University of Glasgow | University of Manchester | University of Oxford
Primary investigator: Dr Tom Crocker
Co-investigators: Professor Andrew Clegg, Professor Amanda Farrin, Dr Rubén Mújica-Mota, Alex Wright-Hughes
External co-investigators: Peter Bower | Joie Ensor | Peter Hanlon | David McAllister | Richard McManus | Maria Panagioti | Kazem Rahimi | Mohammed Rauf | Richard Riley | James Sheppard | Danielle van der Windt | Harm van Marwijk

Description

This project aims to develop the UK Multiple Long-Term Conditions Trials Collaborative (UK MTC) Team, to transform understanding of treatment effects and prognosis for people with multiple long-term conditions (multimorbidity) (MLTC) using individual participant data (IPD) from trials.

Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis (IPDMA) is a new frontier in MLTC research. It involves analysis of original individual-level trial data from multiple trials, substantially increasing statistical power to investigate questions of major strategic importance in MLTC research for personalised healthcare. For example, IPDMA has potential to transform understanding of how different combinations of long-term conditions, MLTC clusters, frailty, sex/gender, ethnicity and deprivation are associated with individual-outcomes (prognosis) and how they interact with the effect of a range of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions. This knowledge has the potential to redefine the way services are designed, delivered and personalised for people with MLTC.

We will use this award to advance capacity for IPDMA in MLTC by developing a network and resources that harness existing IPD repositories, gathering new IPD , enhance IPDMA research skills and knowledge, and developing transformative grants to improve patient care.

Briefly, we plan to:

Harness existing access to trials repositories and IPD, including examining how individual long-term conditions and MLTCs have been recorded to support future harmonisation for IPDMA in MLTC and developing new MLTC reporting guidelines for trialists.
Develop a new repository of IPD from trials focusing on individualised care-planning for older people from diverse and inclusive populations.
Develop areas of interest with patient and public involvement, build capacity for IPDMA through a series of training events and develop methods recommendations for IPDMA in MLTC.

The collaborative nature of the planned work and approach set out will help foster relationships among the Team members, leading to successful future grant applications with the potential to transform MLTC research for patient benefit.