Advancing healthcare research for over-65s

In 2024, Cera launched an ambitious new initiative to advance healthcare research for over-65s: a group who have historically been under-represented in clinical trials and research.

Over-65s account for two-thirds of illness in the UK, yet they make up just one-third of participants in most clinical trials, and often face barriers to participation in other healthcare research studies – including the need to travel and digital barriers. ¹ ² ³

As the population ages, Cera's initiative aims to make it safer and easier for over-65s to take part in clinical trials and real-world evidence (RWE) studies for conditions including dementia, diabetes, COPD, cardiovascular disease and other age-related diseases.

Not only could this improve health outcomes for service users – it also has the potential to boost the UK's world-leading Life Sciences sector – benefiting healthcare research and innovation as the population ages.

How is Cera removing barriers to participation of over-65s in healthcare research?

Cera is one of the UK's largest home care providers, and by far the largest digital-first home care provider. We employ 10,000 carers and nurses across 150 regulated sites nationwide, collectively delivering 2.5 million service user home visits a month. During each visit, our carers and nurses log service users' symptoms digitally in the Cera App, along with other information about their wellbeing, home environment and more.

This data contributes to Cera's industry-leading home healthcare dataset – Europe's largest, spanning over 230 billion health data points.

As such, Cera is uniquely positioned to support NHS, academic and life sciences partners in identifying service users who match the criteria for clinical trials and real-world evidence (RWE) studies – enabling them to participate in groundbreaking new healthcare research studies. By drawing on service users' insights and health data, we can help to advance healthcare research for our ageing population – while connecting our service users with potentially life-changing new treatment options.

Service user safety, privacy and informed consent are central to our programme

Participants' safety, privacy and informed consent are key priorities within our healthcare research programme. All service users are given the choice to opt in or out of being contacted about research studies they may be eligible for.

After opting in, at least two rounds of informed consent would be required for service users to participate in any study.

Case Studies

Sheila Bailey, 85

Sheila has early-stage Alzheimer's and hopes to benefit from access to new treatment options to help slow the progression of the disease.

Cera's healthcare research programme offers hope for Sheila and her family. Read more in The i Paper.

Yvonne Beecroft, 74

Yvonne has atrial fibrillation, which puts her at a higher risk of blood clots and strokes. Some of the medications Yvonne has been prescribed over the past 24 years to prevent a stroke have taken a huge toll on her lifestyle.

When taking Warfarin, for instance, Yvonne had to be extremely careful about what she ate, had to remember to take multiple pills each day, and she also had to go for blood tests every couple of weeks to test for other health risks. 

Eventually, a friend mentioned to Yvonne that they took a different medication, Apixaban, which had far less impact on day-to-day life. Yvonne asked her doctors to switch to that one, and then subsequently she moved to an even newer medication, Edoxaban, which makes life much easier. Now she only needs blood tests once a year and can eat what she wants. She also only has to take one pill a day on the new medication, which prevents missed meds. 

 

Yvonne wants to advocate for clinical research and medication innovation for over-65s, as she knows how life-changing the right health interventions can be. 

She thinks it's important over-65s aren't overlooked for trials and new medication options, so they don't stay stuck on outdated medications for years.

¹ Cambridge Cognition (2020), Guidance for including elderly patients in clinical trials:

https://cambridgecognition.com/guidance-for-including-elderly-patients-in-clinical-trials/

² PubMed Central: Disparate Inclusion of Older Adults in Clinical Trials: Priorities and Opportunities for Policy and Practice Change:

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2837461/

³ AGS Journals: Recruitment and retention of older people in clinical research: a systematic literature review:

https://agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jgs.16875