Advanced musculoskeletal practitioner Nasimah Maricar has been awarded a two-year award to widen recruitment to a key osteoarthritis study among ethnic minority communities.
It’s the first time an AHP has been awarded a highly competitive NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Clinical Research Investment (CRIS) Award.
Dr Maricar’s project will look at knee taping using stretchy elastic tape in painful patellofemoral (knee) osteoarthritis in ethnic communities, who are currently underrepresented in musculoskeletal research. This limits the application of arthritis-related research findings into clinical practice.
She said: “Getting the NIHR Manchester BRC CRIS award means a lot to me. As an AHP, the pathway post-PhD is less clear, and clinical pressures have provided very limited opportunity for me to develop and mature a competitive research programme of work. This award enables protected time for me to grow as a dedicated researcher, and it will serve as a stepping stone for AHPs like myself to have a clinical research career!”
Her research will produce a roadmap that other researchers can use to widen recruitment of ethnic minorities communities in arthritis-related research.
She will extend and complement the current NIHR-funded TAPE-it feasibility study by developing study materials to facilitate inclusion of ethnic communities – including non-English speakers – into the larger planned trial and to explore in depth how patients’ self-taping educational materials can be adapted for use in these groups.
Through identifying barriers and facilitators to knee taping in these communities, the training resources from TAPE-it feasibility study will be adapted accordingly, with written, audio and video information in different languages, including for those with poor literacy.
Dr Maricar is based in Salford and is also an honorary research associate at The University of Manchester and a visiting clinical research fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University.