Georgina Ferry interviews Raha West, Principal Investigator on the RECOVERY Trial, 10 November 2022.
Topics discussed include (00:00:45) early studies and medical training in Leicester and Brighton, research work at St George's Intensive Care, work as a senior anaesthetist at Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust; (00:03:40) research questions explored prior to 2020; (00:06:13) first awareness of COVID-19, early treatment of patients in March 2020; (00:12:35) strain on healthcare workers during the pandemic, PPE protection and interaction with COVID patients; (00:15:30) infection with COVID-19 in April 2020; (00:17:29) involvement with the RECOVERY trial; (00:23:20) process of recruiting patients for the RECOVERY trial; (00:25:15) delivery of the work on the clinical trial and growth of the team; (00:27:40) promotion of the trial and willingness of patients to participate; (00:30:30) wellbeing of team and initiatives taken to motivate team members in patient recruitment; (00:34:32) findings of the trial, particularly relating to dexamethasone; (00:37:04) ongoing nature of the study; (00:38:35) lessening pressure on hospitals owing to the rollout of vaccinations; (00:40:41) current PhD work, future focus particularly relating to research; (00:43:34) RW's view of what should be done differently should there be a future pandemic.
