What does joining involve?
Joining simply involves clicking the link in your text message invitation and completing the online enrolment form. If you join, this means you will allow:
The Heartburn Health team to collect heartburn-related health information held about you from NHS records for many years.
The Heartburn Health team to contact you about future approved studies.
The use of your non-identifiable health data for approved studies, including studies you have not been contacted about.
The Heartburn Health team to share regular updates about the programme and diet and lifestyle advice for living with heartburn.
Joining Heartburn Health is completely your choice.
What information will we collect?
We will collect your health information now to use in future research studies. This includes accessing and collecting heartburn-related health information held about you in national NHS records. This also includes information we ask you to provide in surveys for Heartburn Health.
Some studies may need to collect additional information if they are looking to test something new or need to know something not recorded in your health records. For example, studies may invite you to complete surveys, give samples (e.g. blood), take tests or try new drugs.
The Heartburn Health team may contact you about these studies. Full details will be shared when you are invited to take part. It will be entirely your choice whether to agree to these future invitations.
How will the research work?
All future studies will need ethical approval by the NHS Health Research Authority (HRA).
Future studies may be run by the Heartburn Health team or other researchers from academic (university), non-profit and for-profit organisations from countries around the world. Studies run by other researchers will need both ethical approval and approval from the Heartburn Health Access Board.
Approved studies will use your non-identifiable health data to answer specific research questions. Your non-identifiable data may be used even if you are not contacted about the study.
You may not be contacted because you are not suitable, there are resource limits, or you may be in the comparison group. Comparison groups allow researchers to compare the data of people offered something new (like a drug or test) with people who are not, to see if it makes a difference. You may be in the comparison group based on information about you, such as your age, lifestyle habits or health conditions. You may also be selected at random.
Only the Heartburn Health team will be able to access your personal details (e.g. name, email address). Your data is strictly for health research.
Find out more about how we will keep your data safe.
Full details
The Heartburn Health programme will be a powerful tool to speed up research into care for people with heartburn, indigestion and acid reflux. You can find full details about Heartburn Health in the Participant Information Sheet (PIS).