Mackenzie Clinical Research Institute
The Mackenzie Clinical Research Institute is an established clinical research centre based at the UCLan Burnley campus. This is an exciting collaboration between us and our NHS partners.
Excellence in General Practise Research
This is an exciting collaboration between the University and its NHS partners.
The Institute brings clinical research excellence back to Burnley, where clinical research in primary care really began, as it follows in the footsteps of Sir James Mackenzie, a Burnley GP in who is considered as the father of general practice-based research.
The Mackenzie Clinical Research Institute aims to develop research expertise and educational capacity to meet the challenges faced by health and social care. The Institute benefits from a number of Academic Fellowships jointly funded by the university and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) as part of the Integrated Academic Training (IAT) Programme.
The Mackenzie Clinical Research Institute:
- Offers part-time doctoral posts
- Developed collaborative programmes of research between academic partners, such as Schools of Dentistry, Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, and other community-based health providers informed by the needs of the health community
- Contributes to the regional, national and international development of the primary care academic agenda by planned activities such as hosting international conferences
- Developed academic career paths from trainees to senior scientists, in collaboration with NHS partners, NHS England and NIHR
- Continues to establish a critical mass of healthcare academics (clinical and primary healthcare scientists) in order to contribute to the collective work of UCLan to develop, deliver and support workforce for health and social care across Lancashire and Cumbria.
- The Mackenzie scholarship offered jointly by UCLan and East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust covers all tuition fees and clinical placement costs for an undergraduate medical student for the duration of the 5-year MBBS programme.
- The Mackenzie Professorship in Primary Care: Professor Umesh Chauhan.
- Hosts of the Society of Academic Primary Care, North West Regional Conference 2019 and the 50th National Conference in 2022 and the GP National ACF conference April 2025
- The Medical and Dental School host the NIHR Integrated Academic Programme for doctors and dentists.
Complexity of Healthcare of People with Intellectual Disabilities
The Baily Thomas Charitable Trust has funded a study to investigate deaths in people with intellectual disabilities and explore the influence of potentially modifiable primary care quality and access factors on deaths amenable to good health care for people with intellectual disabilities. The University of Glasgow is leading a collaboration between Manchester Metropolitan University, St Georges’ University of London and UCLan.
Colleagues linked to this project include:
Learning Disability Mortality Review programme (LeDeR)
The learning from deaths of people with a learning disability (LeDeR) programme was set up as a service improvement programme to look at why people are dying and what we can do to change services locally and nationally to improve the health of people with a learning disability and reduce health inequalities. This £1.75 million project will see UCLan, KCL, Kingston and St George’s University of London, and London South Bank University work closely with the voluntary sector and a core group of people with learning disabilities and autism to improve the quality of care they receive in response to research showing that on average, people with a learning disability die earlier than the general public.
Colleagues linked to this project include:
The aim of the 66 month programme is to develop and test a personalised treatment package for adults with learning disability who display aggression. 10-25% of adults with mild to severe learning disability display aggression. This behaviour affects their quality of life, leading to exclusion from social networks and community facilities including access to healthcare. Better understanding of the causes of an individual s aggressive behaviour and coproducing a personalised treatment package could make a significant difference to their quality of life.
Colleagues linked to this project include:
Developing safer health and care systems for People with learning a disability and/or autism (LD&A)
People with LD&A face considerable health inequalities. Their life expectancy is around 20 years less than the average population. Many deaths, including aspiration pneumonia (an infection of the lungs caused by inhaling saliva, food, or liquid) and sepsis, are potentially avoidable.
Through our links with national and regional organisations, we’re exploring the views of people with lived experience. We’re also working with integrated care boards and primary care networks to evaluate current and new models of care being developed.
Colleagues linked to this project include:
The project aims to enhance access, uptake, and impact of primary healthcare actions for individuals with intellectual disability in Australia.
Colleagues linked to this project include:
A randomised controlled trial to assess screening for prostate cancer compared to current standard of care (TRANSFORM)
The TRANSFORM study, funded in partnership with Prostate Cancer UK and NIHR, will look at new ways of screening for prostate cancer. This will be a national randomised control trial unparalleled in terms of scale and size and will provide the definitive data for policymakers to decide on whether screening for prostate cancer should be recommended.
Colleagues linked to this project include:
What makes health checks acceptable and implementable in primary care for people with a learning disability and for autistic people?
People with a learning disability and/or autistic people are more likely to experience health conditions and premature mortality. We know that Annual Health Checks (AHCs) are useful for some people with a learning disability. We need to understand how the NHS can improve AHC provision and how healthcare staff and policymakers should implement them.
Colleagues linked to this project include:
Increasing the uptake of annual health checks in children and young people aged 14-17 years with learning disability.
The aims of the research are to a) gather information from multiple stakeholders to better understand why uptake of annual health checks is low in children and young people (CYP) aged 14-17 years with a learning disability, and b) co-design an intervention to increase uptake and quality.
Colleagues linked to this project include:
RAtionalising Psychotropic medications for adults with Intellectual Disabilities: sCOPing (RAPID-COP)
Many people with intellectual (learning) disabilities (ID) are given medicines when they become upset or distressed to control their behaviours, which some may find challenging. These medicines are mainly licenced for psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia or depression. There is no strong evidence that these medicines help with behaviours that challenge. These medicines can affect the quality of life because of bad side effects and sometimes lead to early death. National and international guidelines say that behaviours that challenge should be helped by person-centred care and psychological and behavioural support. We plan to develop guidelines and training that will tell doctors and others who prescribe and care for people with ID how to prescribe these medicines appropriately, safely reduce them and think of other ways of helping without using the medicine.
Colleagues linked to this project include:
Central and East Lancashire Next Generation GP Leadership programme
The programme aims are as follows:
- ENERGISE: through access to the personal experiences, perspectives and expertise of inspiring leaders.
- ENGAGE: through a supportive network of like-minded local trainees and early career GPs.
- EMPOWER: through a series of workshops and presentations designed to increase GPs ability to shape care within and beyond their clinical organisations.
Colleagues linked to this project include:
Dr Nicola Cooper-Moss
Professor Umesh Chauhan
Mental health prevention and promotion in general practice settings: a feasibility study (MEND)
Will patients registered at a general practice, presenting with mild-moderate mental health difficulties, be willing to be randomised to a study investigating the efficacy of a brief mental health prevention and promotion intervention?
Colleagues linked to this project include:
Professor Umesh Chauhan
Kathryn Jane Gardner
Valerio Benedetto (Health Technology Assessment Unit)
Andrew Clegg (Health Technology Assessment Unit)
GP perceptions of community-based children’s mental health services: a qualitative study
GP satisfaction with children’s mental health services is often reported as low, with many barriers to accessing specialist help described. There has been an increase in children’s Primary Mental Health Worker (PMHW) provision in the UK as part of CAMHS transformation, with a view to supporting the integration of children’s mental services.
There is little research on the impact of PMHWs working with GPs – the principal referrers to local children’s mental health services.. This study explores GPs’ perceptions of children’s mental health services in Pennine Lancashire, and the impact of a novel GP-attached PMHW service.
Colleagues linked to this project include:
Dr Dush Mahadevan at East Lancashire Hospital Trust
Improving Access to priMary care for People with Autism and Learning disabilities (I AM PAL)
People with autism, learning disabilities or both experience health inequalities. They are more likely than their non-disabled peers to experience higher rates of nearly all major medical disorders including: cardiovascular disease, epilepsy, gastrointestinal disorders, vision and hearing impairments, hypertension, asthma, and others, across all age groups. They also encounter obstacles when accessing healthcare services. Obstacles include (but are not limited to): a lack of training for health professionals; data collection issues; and a lack of reasonable adjustments. Without intervention, there is an increased risk of further mental health and physical health conditions. The project aims to explore interventions to improve access to (and utilisation of) primary health care services for people with autism and learning disabilities.
ENERGY project
Around 70% of children and adolescents with mental health problems have not had interventions at a sufficiently early age. National organizations have urged the implementation of programs to improve mental wellbeing in adolescents. Enhancing Emotional Resilience and Growth in Young People (ENERGY) is a multi-disciplinary collaborative project with the goal to bridge the gap between scientific validity and real-life application in community settings with young people. The ENERGY project aims to translate scientific knowledge into evidenced-based prevention programs that can help young people be more resilient and less vulnerable to developing mental health problems. We aim to work closely with young people themselves to design and deliver a programme that will empower young people and enable them to respond effectively to daily life challenges. We work with young people in Lancashire in the development and delivery of an emotional resilience program in collaboration with a Primary Care network of General Practices, schools, and community centres.
Members of the team:
Dr Georgia Chronaki
Dr Karen Whittaker
Colleagues linked to this project include:
Professor Umesh Chauhan
Dr Alison Doherty
This is a Department of Health, UK (National Institute for Health Research, NIHR) funded study in relation to STOMP. Stopping Over Medication of People with intellectual disability, autism or both (STOMP) is an NHS England initiative in the UK. The idea is to develop a Psychoeducational programme (PEP) for the care (support) staff. The PEP will have two components, namely (a) web or paper-based modules, and (b) face to face training sessions.
Colleagues linked to this project include:
Stroke is now the fourth most common cause of death in the UK and the main cause of severe disability, with an estimated annual cost to the NHS of £3 billion for emergency, acute, rehabilitation, and long-term care. Conditions which put people at an increased risk of developing a blood clot, and consequently experiencing a stroke, can be successfully managed using oral anticoagulation (OAC) medicines, also known as ‘blood thinners’.
Colleagues linked to this project include:
Health and care inequalities for minority ethnic populations with a learning disability
NHS Race Health Observatory has asked UCLan and partner organisations to look at the problems with health care which affect people with a learning disability who are from a minority ethnic background.
Academic GP Early Career Conference 2025 - UCLan
UCLan to hold GP Academic Clinical Fellows (AFCs) and other career GP researchers to share their research ideas and preliminary results, hear from experts in methodological and relevant clinical expertise and support career development and contribute to capacity building.
2019
The Society for Academic Primary Care’s Regional/North Conference 2019, UCLan Preston
The regional SAPC conference for the North took place on UCLan’s main campus in Preston in November 2019. The SAPC conferences are the main venues for discussing improvements in Primary Care provision in the UK. The Society provides a clear voice for Academic Primary Care in the complex and ever-changing Primary Care environment and offers a point of reference and contact for those seeking academic solutions to the problems in Primary Care and working for the advancement of Academic Primary Care.
2021
LeDeR Programme
UCLan to support project to tackle health inequalities for people with learning disabilities - UCLan
The 2021 annual reports for the LeDeR programme now available. You can find the full report, accessible video and reports here: 2021 LeDeR report into the avoidable deaths of people with learning disabilities
2022
8th Helen Lester Memorial Lecture
Irene Tuffrey Wijne and Richard Keagan-Bull will be talking about the needs of people with learning disability towards the end of life:
8th Helen Lester Memorial Lecture: Irene Tuffrey-Wijne and Richard Keagan-Bull | SAPC
Society of Academic Primary Care Conference 2022
SAPC ASM 2022 - UCLan Conference | SAPC
UCLan successfully held the 50th annual SAPC conference with over 250 delegates. Key highlights included:
- The Helen Lester Memorial Lecture delivered by Dr Amy Russell on how we can break the cycle of inequality for people with learning disability: Dr Amy M Russell | SAPC
- SAPC Education Prize winning presentation by Dr Helen Miles and Abhi Jones
Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Trust given The Ruth Young award
Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCft) is celebrating after winning The Ruth Young award at the North West Coast Innovation Agency Awards.
Local GPs inject funds into UCLan’s medical institute
An East Lancashire charity is £140,000 to the University’s Mackenzie Clinical Research Institute. The University has been given a major vote of confidence by local doctors.
East Lancashire-based charity The Mackenzie Medical Centre Association is winding down and granting £140,000 to UCLan’s Mackenzie Clinical Research Institute. The money will be used to support the growth of UCLan’s Institute, based at the Burnley Campus, to develop excellence in education and training in all clinical disciplines and professions within the area of primary care.
2023
UCLan Medical and Dental School are allocated NIHR Academic Clinical Fellowship training posts.
Dr James Mackenzie
Dr Mackenzie began working in Burnley as general practitioner in 1879, developing an international reputation for his work in clinical research. A significant part of his GP practice included domiciliary obstetrics (home births) and when an apparently well woman, under his care, died suddenly of heart failure in the first stage of labour he was both shocked and sought to understand why. As a result of this tragic situation, he asked himself: ‘Would this death have occurred if I had a better knowledge of heart afflictions?’. He made it his life’s work to study and research the function of the heart and treatment of heart problems.
Following his observations and investigations, he discovered that the most appropriate form of early diagnosis was provided by observation of the jugular venous pulse (JVP) and he created a machine known as ‘Dr Mackenzie’s Ink Polygraph’ to measure the pulse. This innovation was the precursor to cardiac monitoring, and ultimately the electrocardiogram (ECG).
At the height of his fame, having become established as a cardiologist in London, he returned to his native Scotland and established an Institute of Clinical Research attached to St Andrews University which continued his work up until the 1940s.
Dr Mackenzie established the foundations of cardiology. Most importantly these stemmed from his observations in general practice, and in the community. Mackenzie’s believed that medicine should be studied in the communities that doctors work, as he felt that doctors were well equipped to provide the basis of medical research.
It is the vision of Sir James Mackenzie that General Practitioners are in the best position to carry out medical research in the community. So, we have encapsulated his ideas in our newly established Institute at the heart of the community in Burnley run by locally-based GPs and academics. The opportunities to address the everyday problems faced in modern general practice are enormous and we are excited and privileged to be able to do this.
- Prof. Umesh Chauhan
- Nicola Ditzel