Clinical Research Facility

The CRF is situated on the first floor of the Centre for Biomedical Research, the same building as the main BRU offices at Northern General.

Within the facility there are a number of specialist rooms that the BRU staff can use to aid their research. There is an echocardiography room, a clinical investigation suite, and a treadmill room. All of these are used by the staff to gather data for the CVBRU studies.

The echocardiography room contains a state of the art echocardiogram machine that is used to give an ultrasound image of the heart. This is then analysed so as to give the investigators a measure of the efficiency and functionality of the heart being studied.

The clinical investigation suite is used when a study requires an extended stay from a patient or volunteer. This room provides a comfortable place from which a patient can be monitored over a period of many hours, something that is required on a number of the studies being carried out.

The treadmill room is home to the facility’s own exercise treadmill. The unit use this to conduct studies that require the heart of the patient or volunteer to be measured whilst under stress.

Without the facilities provided by the CRF, the research being done at the CVBRU would be a lot harder to complete. The fact that the CRF also shares a building with the CVBRU means that the process becomes smoother for the patients and more efficient for the unit’s staff.