Celebrating our team’s achievement in EXAKT: recruiting 25% of the national study cohort

St George’s Hospital Critical Care has delivered a standout contribution to a major national research paper, recruiting 223 of the 903 patients enrolled in the newly published EXAKT study — meaning one in four participants (25%) came from St George’s.

The study, now published in The BMJ, examines the impact of skin tone on the performance of pulse oximeters used in the NHS England COVID Oximetry @home scheme, an issue with particular significance for the diverse communities served by the NHS and by St George’s.

Dr Dagan Lonsdale, Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine and Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology, said the publication is both timely and worth marking beyond the research world. “St George’s patients represented 25% of the participants for the trial. Quite a remarkable contribution and testament to the hard work and dedication of our research team alongside the engagement of our community of patients with research”.

Recruitment at St George’s was led by the Critical Care Directorate Lead Research Nurse / GICU Team Leader and her team in general intensive care, coordinating patient identification, consent processes and data collection in one of the most pressured clinical environments in the hospital. The scale of the recruitment underscores both the capacity of the unit’s research workforce and the willingness of patients and families to support studies aimed at improving care.

The EXAKT paper is available here: https://www.bmj.com/content/392/bmj-2025-085535