I’m delighted to say that Santé-AF has just recruited and trained six excellent practitioners – three acupuncturists and three nutritional therapists – to carry out the Santé-AF therapy sessions.
When I say “training” – obviously we’re not training the practitioners to be practitioners! They are all, already, highly-trained, very skilled and experienced practitioners of either acupuncture or nutritional therapy. But we’re training them to be practitioners in the trial.
That might sound a bit odd – after all, this is a pragmatic trial, which means we’re setting out to replicate what happens “in real life”. So our practitioners are just doing what they normally do, aren’t they?
They are – as far as their work with participants goes. What happens during an appointment for a trial participant will be exactly the same as what happens in an ordinary appointment. But to work in the trial, our practitioners also have to pay extra-careful attention to things like reporting and safety. For instance, there are requirements to report their safety measures when working with people with AF, and for the acupuncturists in particular there are requirements to report their Covid-safe working practice for each appointment since they are face-to-face with the participants (unlike our nutritional therapists, who will be working online to minimise the risk of Covid transmission).
We are also asking our practitioners to share the details of the treatments and advice they give to each participant (who will be identified during the study by a code, to preserve their individual confidentiality). Practitioners will report these details, and the treatment approaches they’re using – so we’re training them in how to report those things accurately and promptly.
This might sound quite dry, and some of it is – but it’s crucial to make sure that we’re capturing the right data, accurately and in a timely way. That will allow us to analyse some of the finer points of practice in both therapies when working with atrial fibrillation patients. In addition to all the scheduled papers that will be published as part of the trial, I’m hopeful that at least a handful of good case studies will come out of Santé-AF; and in addition, we’re aiming to share our knowledge with the wider practitioner base once the study’s intervention period is over, in the form of an online masterclass for practitioners of each therapy.
I’m delighted that all our practitioners chose to be in the trial in order to develop their professional practice, and to work together as part of a team. Their contributions to our training were collaborative, thoughtful and imaginative – making the workshops a pleasure for us all. I’m looking forward very much to working with them!
To find out more about the individual practitioners on the Santé-AF trial, take a look at our Who We Are page.