Edinburgh Imaging

02 Mar 22. Dr Anna Barton in Sunday Post

Dr Anna Barton recently featured in a Sunday Post article, discussing the importance of involving female participants in cardiology research studies.

Dr Anna Barton, outside the EIF QMRI entrance.
Dr Anna Barton, outside the EIF QMRI entrance.

Dr Anna Barton, Clinical Research Fellow is currently running the FAPI Fibrosis Study, a project involving PET-MR scanning to investigate the scarring response after a heart attack, funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and the BHF Centre of Research Excellence in Edinburgh.

Dr Barton has since found the difficulty in recruiting women in cardiology studies, and addresses this barrier in her article with the Sunday Post.

Dr Barton explains: Most of the evidence concerning the response to heart attacks, be these drug trials or observational studies, features many more men than women. In order to be confident in applying research findings to the general population, our study populations should mirror the wider population as closely as possible.

There are several potential barriers women may experience to a greater extent than men when considering whether to become involved in research. Women lead busy lives and are more likely than men to participate in caring roles for family members or friends. This may make it harder to prioritise themselves and their involvement over commitments in other parts of their life. In Dr Barton’s, women are likely to value additional time to consider whether to be involved. Her study, where the first of 4 scans needs to be performed around a week after the heart attack, can entail too much time pressure and not enough thinking time. In addition, women tend to consider risks of research with a higher degree of caution, therefore studies involving radiation, which Dr Barton’s does at a low level, may be more off-putting to prospective female rather than male participants.

These considerations highlight the importance of patient involvement in study design. Engaging both male and female patient stakeholders from a wide range of backgrounds when setting up a study can help to avoid design that has disproportionate barriers to particular genders or groups.

Dr Barton is currently recruiting patients with acute and prior established myocardial infarction as well as healthy volunteers to the FAPI Fibrosis Study, where the PET-MR scans are taking place at the Edinburgh Imaging Facility QMRI.

 

You can read Anna’s article in the Sunday Post, here.

 

 

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Dr Anna Barton recently featured in a Sunday Post article, discussing the importance of involving female participants in cardiology research studies.

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