Taking EDGE Finance Training on the Road in Northern Ireland

EDGE colleagues Roberto Aguiar and Stevie Barre recently returned from their trip to Northern Ireland, where they delivered EDGE finance training across three Trusts, Western Health and Social Care Trust, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, and Southern Health and Social Care Trust.

The visit provided an opportunity to work directly with teams on the ground, supporting the rollout of finance tools that Stevie and EDGE Community Champion Mat Davis have developed and refined over the years to complement EDGE’s finance functionality. Stevie had the following words to say regarding this recent trip:

“Getting out on the road across all three sites and visiting the teams was a fantastic experience for both Roberto and me. Meeting everyone in person made a massive difference. Putting faces to names made it much more personable and gave the teams an opportunity to get to know me as their Client Manager.”

The engagement across all three sites was a real highlight for both Roberto and Stevie. Teams asked insightful questions, shared practical suggestions and provided valuable feedback on how the tools could support their day-to-day work. Roberto shared:

“It was also great to see first-hand how EDGE and the finance tools could help teams save time, improve efficiency and support cost recovery, helping to maximise funds available for reinvestment in research.”

The feedback given has already led to improvements, with Stevie and Roberto taking ideas from the sessions to further refine the tools and explore ways to make EDGE even more efficient.

With a warm welcome at every site and strong engagement from each team, the visit was a valuable opportunity to share knowledge, strengthen relationships and demonstrate the wider benefits EDGE can bring to finance and research management. From all of us at EDGE, we would like to say a big thank to you all of those involved across the Northern Ireland sites!

Stevie & Roberto pictured with Liz Macari, Research Administrator, Paulette Higgenbotham, Research Facilitator and Diane Mackey, Research Manager, Western Health and Social Care Trust

Stevie & Roberto pictured here with Roisin McKenna and Roisin McNulty, Pharmacy, Rachelle Moore, Research Manager, Denise McFarland, Nursing and Mairead McAreavey, Research Administrator, Southern Health and Social Care Trust

Stevie & Roberto pictured with Julie Hamilton and Carolyn Hewit, Research Finance, Fionnuala White and Chris Wright, Respiratory Research, Jo MacAllistar, Cancer Trials, Dermot Ryder, Angela Toner, Michelle, Roisin, Research Facilitator CRF and Andrew Sloane, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust

EDGEY's Trip to South Africa

EDGEY’s Trip

to South Africa

EDGEY and CIRU Head of Trading Services, Tim Gibbons landed in Cape Town, South Africa in early September to visit the University of Cape Town (UCT) Clinical Research Centre and his long-standing friend, Annemie Stewart.

University of Cape Town were the first group to convert from EDGE 2 to EDGE 3 in February this year. Since February Annemie has been working with her Data Manager, Lwazi Mhlanti to transition some of the spreadsheet trial trackers from Excel to EDGE. They’re now planning to get stuck in with using some of the Finance recording, apportioning and invoices tools over the coming months. As of September, UCT have 43 trials and trial sites across the African continent under one single system, (EDGE), for the first time.

While EDGEY was in town he met a newcomer to EDGE, Linda Mbuthini, Clinical Trials Data Manager for the University of Cape Town’s Lung Institute. The Lung Institute are working to develop their use of EDGE providing support to an established data capture team and interacting with field Nurses and Senior Researchers across the continent. They’ll be using the newly developed EDGE processes for their Tuberculosis study opening in South Africa, Zanzibar, and Zimbabwe this winter.

We are looking forward to welcoming the University of Cape town team to our EDGE conference in March 2024.

CIRU’s Tim Gibbons with UCT EDGE users

Taking Research to New Heights

Taking Research to New Heights

Learn, Share and Aspire.

If I were being really honest, I never expected to be working in the healthcare sector and even more so for the CIRU team. I had initially anticipated working for around 18 months as a Consultant Project Manager for Greater Glasgow and Clyde working with the infrastructure team to aid in the deployment of new hardware and software way back in the ‘Windows 7’ days. I met so many fantastic people, cleaners, porters, nurses, and consultants all with one aim: improving the lives and care of patients. Working for the finance sector across London and Europe, I was accustomed to having all the resources and funding I needed. This was not to be said for the NHS and I felt guilty. I decided then and there I was going to change careers, join the NHS, and make change. Maybe it was fate, but two weeks before I was due to leave, I was asked to apply for a role within the Clinical Trials Unit and so my journey with EDGE and the NHS began.

There I was, zero experience of trials, in fact on my first day I heard the nurses discussing blind trials. Let’s just say I thought they were discussing ophthalmology and that remained a joke for some time. I was tasked with migrating all the patient and trials management information for the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre from the in-house system to EDGE 2, and that’s when clinical trials and all the complexities began to make sense to me. Within 12 months I felt I had never known anything else, and soon thereafter I transferred to the Glasgow CRF to carry out another EDGE implementation and data migration.

The EDGE Aspire Conference 2018 provided the catalyst that propelled my EDGE journey. I listened with enthusiasm to the breakout session by Tracey Hole "Finance- Getting the basics right" and thought we should be doing this. Here I was, back in the office with an old-style costing spreadsheet staring at the ceiling thinking of how to get this square peg into a round hole. I remained undeterred and so the ‘Import Tool‘ was born. That year was amazing, the late nights and long weekends developing, culminated in speaking at the EDGE Connected Conference 2019 and by then I had connected with so many from the EDGE community who saw merit in the work I had completed.

I had not long started working with NHS Lothian when COVID-19 came along, a dreadful time for so many but the research community rallied together to achieve great things. This is when my journey with Mat Davis from UH Dorset NHS Trust began, and having already began work on the new format, I joined forces with Mat. Albeit we were 446 miles apart, it quickly became apparent we had similar life backgrounds and ambitions to help the NHS. In that first 6 months I think we spent more time together than we did with our families and we are both very proud of all we achieved since: the new ICT Tool, the EDGE Assistant, Tracker, and Apportionment Module. He is now someone I consider as a great friend and it’s just a pity we are so far apart, but we do keep each other going. I should also mention a huge thanks to the finance team at Lothian, especially Hugh and Neil and for Monica who works alongside Mat who have been instrumental in the design and features of the tools.

And now to the Clinical Informatics Unit and EDGE. COVID-19 brought a whole new way of remote working and when the opportunity to work with a team I had long admired it was never in doubt. To be honest I have always been part of the team in spirit. I was literally thrown in at the deep end with the launch of EDGE 3 days after joining. It’s been challenging and eventful and there is never a dull moment. My aim here as the Programme Manager is assist the current EDGE user base and attract new Trusts and Networks with a focus on managing their finance. A new area of interest is that of Cybersecurity and maintaining the integrity of the data and improving the process and procedures within the department.

My new role does differ from that of a Lead Admin, but at its core my role still remains the same: to improve patient care and be part of a team where that ethos is already embedded in everything that they do.