As part of our commitment to providing faster access to healthcare innovations, University Hospitals Sussex (UHSussex) has launched a new research partnership aimed at improving care for people who are critically ill or undergoing major surgery.
The new Joint Clinical Academic Directorate (JCAD) for Critical Care and Peri-Operative Medicine (CCPOM) officially launched on 15 April 2026. It is the first of its kind at UHSussex and brings together NHS clinicians, researchers, universities and community partners from across Sussex.
Critical care and peri-operative services support some of the sickest patients in our hospitals, including people needing intensive care and those having high-risk surgery. Around 250,000 people in the UK require critical care every year, while 10 million operations take place annually.
The ambition of the CCPOM JCAD is to speed up the development of new treatments, technologies and ways of caring for patients – helping people recover more quickly, safely and with better long-term outcomes. Its work is already making a positive impact to patient care including smartwatch enabled prehab in cancer surgery. You can read more about the early impacts at Research impact and case studies – University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust
Professor Barbara Philips, who co-leads the CCPOM JCAD with Dr Luke Hodgson, said: “Working together across Sussex will help us bring advances in care to patients more quickly – both locally and beyond.”
Critical care services at UHSussex are delivered across our hospital sites, giving patients access to both local care and specialist expertise across the region.
Patients and the public are playing an important role in shaping the research. At the launch event, UHSussex patient research champion, Laurence Penn, shared his experience of receiving critical care when he was hospitalised with severe COVID-19 in 2020. He said: “Through my experience, I’ve developed a huge appreciation of the NHS, and of how valuable research is to the future of healthcare.”
The new partnership will also help support staff to combine clinical work with research, helping ensure patients can benefit from the latest evidence and innovations. Carolina Congovales, a Physiotherapist at UHSussex, said: “Research is not an optional extra – it is part of patient care. It is our duty to offer patients access to research, often providing options that may not otherwise be available.”
The launch marks another step forward in UHSussex’s growing research programme. In 2025/26, more than 7,000 people took part in research studies at the Trust – a 38% increase on the previous year. UHSussex is also investing £6.3 million to redevelop research facilities across its hospitals with support from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
Professor Martin Llewelyn, Clinical Director of Research and Innovation at UHSussex, said: “The launch of this first JCAD is an important landmark. As part of the Trust’s strategic commitment to providing excellent care everywhere, these partnerships will help strengthen our culture of research and improve care for patients across Sussex and beyond.”
To find out more about research at UHSussex, visit the UHSussex research pages.