ORCHID Annual Report 2024 - Flipbook - Page 1
About us
The Centre for Outcomes and Experience Research in Children9s Health,
Illness and Disability (known as ORCHID) is a research centre within GOSH. It
was first established in 2000, situated within a new theme within ICH General
and Adolescent Health and led by Professor Linda Franck. The research centre
remained within ICH until around 2011, when the unit become fully supported
by GOSH, with the lead of ORCHID holding a joint appointment with London
South Bank University. The core leadership of ORCHID has remained small
but stable since its move into the Trust.
ORCHID is one of a discrete number of academic units hosted within a NHS
hospital, and its uniqueness lies in its primary focus on children and young
people. Leadership of ORCHID is multi-professional in nature, and our focus is
on the conduct of high-quality outcomes and experience-based research in the
field of child health, specialising in inclusive research with hard-to-reach groups
and collaborating on multi-disciplinary studies locally, nationally, and
internationally. This, our Research Faculty, flexes to host researchers on fixed
term contracts- our vibrant research community strengthened through the work
of social scientists and health service researchers. Within ORCHID we also
have a Clinical Academic Faculty which comprises an integrated group of
NAHPs (Nurses, Allied Health Professionals) who are undertaking pre-doctoral,
doctoral, and post-doctoral level research training. We have a significant role in
influencing and helping to embed a strong research culture into the fabric of
GOSH, that includes supporting NAHPs who are actively seeking to develop a
clinical academic career. Our Clinical Academic Faculty is robust, and we
receive some support from the NIHR GOSH Biomedical Research Centre to
sustain and create new initiatives to support engagement in research. Through
these combined goals ORCHID contributes to innovation and excellence in
child health care, both generating evidence, to influence policy and practice,
and fostering the development of NAHP research leaders of the future.
ORCHID provides a central virtual and in person hub. It is led by the GOSH
Director of NAHP Research and comprises a team of senior researchers from
NAHP disciplines. The Strategic Management Team who are each leading
programmes of research. Through our varied roles and multiple partnerships,
we support research across GOSH and contribute to the research hospital
agenda.
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