About UPTURN
​Why are we doing this study?
In England around 80,000 people live with COPD, which causes breathlessness, a persistent cough, and wheezing. Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) is a treatment for people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). It involves supervised exercise and education to help manage symptoms. Before starting PR, patients go through an assessment to see if they are a good fit for the programme and to fine-tune their treatment. Attending this assessment is a strong indicator that they will continue with the PR programme.
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Unfortunately, up to one third of COPD patients do not attend their initial PR assessment or fail to take up the programme, and therefore never get the benefit of the treatment. UPTURN aims to address these issues, working to co-design and test a support package in partnership with healthcare professionals, people living with COPD and their families.
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Some ethnic minority groups have higher rates of COPD than others and have low attendance at PR assessment. There can be many reasons for this. The UPTURN study will start by working with people living with COPD from the Bangladeshi and African and Caribbean communities and their families, to understand their specific questions and concerns about PR. ​​
Other UPTURN pages, click below: ​​​
Charity Partner - Asthma + Lung UK
Sponsor - Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Funder - National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)​​​
What is our aim?
We aim to create a service to help more people attend their PR assessment. The service will be designed to support attendance for all eligible patients. To address health inequalities, we are involving people from communities often under-represented in research because of things like language barriers and/or economic challenges. We’re also talking to healthcare professionals to find out what works and what doesn’t when it comes to providing PR, especially for people from minority and/or disadvantaged backgrounds. This will help us develop better, more personalised support to increase PR attendance. The service will be tested in a clinical trial, and if it works well, we hope to make it a standard part of the PR process across NHS England.
Who are we?
The UPTURN team comprises researchers from various UK institutions, including the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (sponsor), Universities of Cambridge, Leicester, York, Norwich Clinical Trials Unit, University College London and King’s College London. Our charity partner, Asthma + Lung UK will be providing the service. Patient and public contributors, including representatives from ethnic minority communities, are central to the research team. A key part of the programme will be building community relationships and focusing on what matters most to patients. The team will also work with community researchers to help ensure that ethnic minority patients and carers are included in the co-design of the service.
Our Progress
UPTURN's project plan
What We’ve Achieved So Far
Over the past few months, the team has made strong progress in preparing for the feasibility study.
1. Creating PPI Groups
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To make sure the study is relevant and realistic, we have formed five Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) groups. These include four community-specific groups and one broader group.
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The groups bring together people from different backgrounds and experiences to ensure that the views of people living with COPD, their families, carers and communities are represented in the study design.
2. Co-designing the Support Package
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We also worked with people with lived experience of COPD, healthcare professionals and researchers to design the intervention.
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Through workshops, user testing and group discussions, the development team created a support package called “Prepare for Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR for short)” that addresses the barriers people face, while ensuring it is practical and suitable for everyone.
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Our final workshop was held on 22 July, and the support package and all its components, such as testimonial videos, are now being created.
What Happens Next
Our team is now preparing for the feasibility study.
1. Submitting Regulatory Documents
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With the support package being finalised and study design complete, we have submitted all the necessary documents to the Research Ethics Committee (REC) and the Confidentiality Advisory Group (CAG) for their review and approval.
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This is an important step to make sure participants, and their data, are safe, their rights are protected and the research is conducted ethically.
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The trial can only begin once these approvals are in place.
2. Setting Up the Trial
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While we wait for approval, the research team is working on:
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Registering the trial
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Contacting potential study sites
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Preparing study documentation​
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These steps will help make sure everything is ready to start as soon as permission is granted and PR services (sites) have been recruited.