UKSTAR study team
Chief investigator: Matthew Costa.
Co-investigators: Matthew Costa, Juul Achten, Rebecca Kearney, Sarah Lamb, Nick Parsons, Stavros Petrou, Ben Ollivere, Malvenia Richmond and Richard Grant.
Study lead: Juul Achten.
Trial managers: Susan Wagland and Anna Liew.
Senior trial managers: Juul Achten and Damian Haywood.
Study co-ordinators and administrators: Catherine Thompsett, Ramona Barbu, Kylea Draper, Hugo Strachwitz, Hasina Mangal and Alice Brealy.
Health economists: Stavros Petrou and Mandy Maredza.
Study statisticians: Michael Maia Schlüssel, Ioana Marian and Susan Dutton.
Recruitment centres
| NHS trust | Principal investigator |
|---|---|
| King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | Ines Reichert |
| Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Ben Ollivere |
| Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust | Andrew McAndrew |
| NHS Grampian – Aberdeen Royal Infirmary | Alan Johnstone |
| NHS Tayside – Dundee | Fraser Harrold |
| NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde – Glasgow Royal Infirmary | Jane Madeley |
| United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust | Harish Kurup |
| North Tees and Hartlepool Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust – University Hospital of North Tees | Rajesh Nanda |
| Airedale NHS Foundation Trust | Avijeet Ghosh |
| Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust | Sridhar Sampalli |
| Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust | Sandeep Kapoor |
| George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust | Asterios Dramis |
| James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Nitin Modi |
| University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust | Nicholas Hancock |
| East and North Hertsfordshire NHS Trust | Rupe Deol |
| Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust | Richard Walter |
| Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust | Justin Forder |
| Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Peter Hull |
| University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust | Mark Westwood |
| Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust | Viren Mishra |
| Luton and Dunstable University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | Simon Burtt |
| Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust | Victoria Lyle |
| Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust | Nikos Reissis |
| The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust | Jason Eyre |
| Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust | Paul Harwood |
| Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust | Abhijit Guha |
| Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Sanjeev Madan |
| Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust | Andrea Sott |
| Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust | Rajarshi Bhattacharya |
| NHS Highland – Raigmore Hospital | James Beastall |
| St Helens and Knowsley Hospitals NHS Trust | Jordi Ballester |
| Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust | Atif Malik |
| South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust | Sameh El-Kawy |
| Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Babis Karagkevrekis |
| Wye Valley NHS Trust | Amr Abdallah |
| University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust | Ansar Mahmood |
| Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | Mark Deakin |
| University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust | Moez Ballal, Nasser Kurdy |
| Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust | Andrew Kelly |
Study Steering Committees
The TSC comprised:
- Independent members: Mr Paul Baker (Orthopaedic Surgeon), chairperson; Mrs Sarah Webb (Patient Representative); Dr Dylan Morrissey (Consultant Physiotherapist); and Dr Anne-Marie Hutchison (Consultant Physiotherapist).
- Non-independent member: Professor Matthew Costa (Chief Investigator).
The DSMC comprised:
- Independent members: Professor Lee Shepstone (Statistician), chairperson; Professor Simon Donell (Orthopaedic Surgeon); and Dr Jean Craig (Reseach Advisor).
- Non-independent members: Ioana Marian (Trial Statistician) and Susan Dutton (OCTRU lead statistician).
Contributions of authors
Matthew L Costa (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3644-1388) (Professor of Trauma Surgery, Oxford Trauma) was chief investigator. He led the funding application, study conception and design, development of interventions, provided overall study supervision, and wrote and reviewed the report.
Juul Achten (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8857-5743) (Research Manager, Oxford Trauma) prepared the funding application, provided overall study supervision, developed the study, developed the intervention, designed the study, and wrote and reviewed the report.
Susan Wagland (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5566-0925) (Clinical Trials Manager, Oxford Trauma) managed and supervised the study, and wrote and reviewed the report.
Ioana R Marian (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0692-8112) (Medical Statistician) was trial statistician, conducted the statistical analysis and wrote the report.
Mandy Maredza (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2030-3338) (Research Fellow, Health Economics) was trial health economist. She designed the study, conducted the health economics analysis and wrote the report.
Michael Maia Schlüssel (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1711-9310) (Medical Statistician) was trial statistician. He conducted the statistical analysis and wrote the report.
Anna S Liew (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6568-1631) (Clinical Trials Manager, Oxford Trauma) managed and supervised the study, developed the study, developed the intervention, designed the study and reviewed the report.
Nick R Parsons (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9975-888X) (Associate Professor of Medical Statistics) developed the study, developed the intervention, designed the study and reviewed the report.
Susan J Dutton (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4573-5257) (OCTRU Lead Statistician) was lead statistician. She designed the study, conducted the statistical analysis, and wrote and reviewed the report.
Rebecca S Kearney (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8010-164X) [Associate (Clinical) Professor and Associate Director of Warwick Clinical Trials Unit] developed the study, developed the intervention, designed the study and reviewed the report.
Sarah E Lamb (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4349-7195) (Professor and Director of Centre for Statistics in Medicine) developed study conception, designed the study and reviewed the report.
Benjamin Ollivere (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1410-1756) (Clinical Associate Professor and Honorary Consultant Orthopaedic and Major Trauma Surgeon) developed the study, developed the intervention, designed the study and reviewed the report.
Stavros Petrou (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3121-6050) (Professor of Health Economics) oversaw the health economics analysis, and wrote and reviewed the report.
Publications
Achten J, Parsons NR, Kearney RL, Maia Schlüssel M, Liew AS, Dutton S, et al. Cast versus functional brace in the rehabilitation of patients treated non-operatively for a rupture of the Achilles tendon: protocol for the UK study of tendo achilles rehabilitation (UK STAR) multi-centre randomised trial. BMJ Open 2017;7:e019628.
Marian I, Costa ML, Dutton S. Cast versus functional brace in the rehabilitation of patients with a rupture of the Achilles tendon: statistical analysis plan for the UK study of tendo Achilles rehabilitation (UK STAR) multi-centre randomised controlled trial. Trials 2019;20:311.
Costa ML, Achten J, Marian IR, Dutton SJ, Lamb SE, Ollivere B, et al. Plaster cast versus functional brace for non-surgical treatment of Achilles tendon rupture (UKSTAR): a multicentre randomised controlled trial and economic evaluation. Lancet 2020;395:441–8.
Data-sharing statement
All data requests should be submitted to the corresponding author for consideration. Access to available anonymised data may be granted following review.
Patient data
This work uses data provided by patients and collected by the NHS as part of their care and support. Using patient data is vital to improve health and care for everyone. There is huge potential to make better use of information from people’s patient records, to understand more about disease, develop new treatments, monitor safety, and plan NHS services. Patient data should be kept safe and secure, to protect everyone’s privacy, and it’s important that there are safeguards to make sure that it is stored and used responsibly. Everyone should be able to find out about how patient data are used. #datasaveslives You can find out more about the background to this citation here: https://understandingpatientdata.org.uk/data-citation.
Disclaimers
This report presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The views and opinions expressed by authors in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NHS, the NIHR, NETSCC, the HTA programme or the Department of Health and Social Care. If there are verbatim quotations included in this publication the views and opinions expressed by the interviewees are those of the interviewees and do not necessarily reflect those of the authors, those of the NHS, the NIHR, NETSCC, the HTA programme or the Department of Health and Social Care.