Leading research trials to success

To mark International Clinical Trials Day 2022, we spoke to Dr Emily Clarke, Deputy Clinical Lead for Research,

“I have an interest in women’s sexual health. As a consultant in Axess, the Trust’s sexual health service, it’s lovely that a lot of our patients are curable. It gives us the opportunity to improve their future health and that of their sexual partners.

“I specialise in HIV and lead the HIV in pregnancy and menopause clinics for Axess. People tend to think my speciality is small but it’s really interesting to see such a broad spectrum of people walk through the door. I’m also lucky that my speciality provides amazing opportunities - I’ve been appointed as Chair of the Clinical Standards Unit for the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, which is the national body that sets the standards for the care we provide.

“We’re currently running a clinical trial called SOLAR, which is an injectable HIV medication that has only just become available on the NHS. We were the highest recruiter in the UK for the trial and it’s brought an innovative treatment to our patients that they wouldn’t have been able to access elsewhere.

Sometimes medical research and clinical trials can seem like quite an abstract thing but this essentially sums up what we’re trying to do for our patients at LUHFT - develop new treatments that address their health needs and, in the process, give as many of our patients as possible the opportunity to get involved in research, which means they’re able to access these treatments earlier than would otherwise be the case.

“My career started from a degree in Medicine at Southampton University. After I graduated in 2006 I worked in a number of roles down south before I realised I wanted to specialise in sexual health. When I finished my registrar training at Solent NHS Trust, I really wanted a career in a teaching hospital so that I could continue to combine my patient-facing role with the research and teaching I was doing as well.

“A great opportunity arose in Liverpool, so in 2017 I made the decision to move nearby to the Wirral with my husband and two young children to take up my consultant role. I could tell that medical care was really advancing at that time in Liverpool and felt that I could fill a gap in the research team at LUHFT. It was a big move but I’m lucky that my husband is a full-time dad and that my mum also decided to make the move with us and lives around the corner! Two years ago, I started karate classes with my son. I spend most of the time trying not to fall over but have managed to achieve a green belt!

“Most of my clinical work is providing sexual health care, which might be looking after people with sexually transmitted infections or contraceptive needs. Once a week I also run a genital dermatology clinic and HIV clinic.

A few years ago, we participated in a trial called PrEP Impact, which focussed on preventative treatment for people with HIV. It makes me really proud that as a result of the trial, preventative treatment for HIV is now available for patients on the NHS and is changing lives of hundreds of thousands of people with HIV across England, as well as reducing the further spread of the disease.

“One of the most rewarding moments of my career was when I was asked to sit on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Guidelines Committee which developed guidelines aimed at reducing sexually transmitted infections across England. From a research point of view, I’m also really proud of the first time I was approached to be a Principal Investigator at LUHFT."