Foot & Ankle Collaborative in Trauma Network

The FACT Network studies are a series of UK-wide retrospectice studies planned to gather important data on rare fractures affecting the foot and ankle. The aim is to pool data to be able to guide future management. 

The FACT Network will serve as the foundation of all of the Foot & Ankle Collaborative in Trauma (FACT) studies , which are all supported by BOFAS. Further information can be accessed here: https://www.fact-network.co.uk/  

 

 

FACT-1 (Talar Fractures)

FACT-1 will be looking specifically at Talar Fracture and will be led by Mr Ed Gee. FACT-1 aims to establish a multi-centre, retrospective review of talus fractures treated within the past 10 years as a national collaborative study. This will enable a well-powered study of talus fractures with a variety of managements and complications. We aim to identify specific risk factors for current complication rates to guide best management.

 

Study Protocol

Full details and the study protocol can be viewed here: https://www.darfi.net/studies/fact-1/ 

You can download the protocol directly from this link.

 

Initial Steps / Expression of Interest

If you are interested in being the local PI for FACT-1, please complete the following steps:

  1. Complete a DARFI Expression of Interest form (https://bit.ly/DARFI-EoI) for your Trust's research and innovation department to be onboarded and registered as a collaborative/partner site. This will only need to be completed once per Trust, but if is the first study being conducted, it might take a little longer to get all the agreements in place.
  1. If you haven't already, please complete the FACT-1 Expression of Interest form (https://bit.ly/fact1-EoI) to be listed as your Trust's local PI for FACT-1. This list is how we will be communicating with PIs moving forward including study updates.
  1. Spread the word. Please feel free to share this email with colleagues across the country who would be interested in getting involved.

 

 

Getting Involved with the FACT Network

FACT studies are hosted and supported via DARFI (https://www.darfi.net/) and Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust's Research and Innovation (R&I) department. DARFI is the Database for Atypical and Rare Fractures and Injuries which is an NHS REC approved platform for retrospective national collaborative database studies.

In order for your NHS Trust's to partake in this study (and all future DARFI studies) an expression of interest form for DARFI must be completed first via https://bit.ly/DARFI-EoI.

This will be picked up by our R&I colleagues who will follow this up and ensure all the relevant agreements are in place between LUHFT and your NHS Trust. Once completed, this will then mean that each registered/onboarded site can partake in this study as well as any future DARFI studies instantly without any further R&I agreements.

A list of active and onboarded DARFI sites will be maintained on https://www.darfi.net/sites/.

To propose a further topic for FACT research, please visit this site.