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Thank you for taking the time to visit our page!
NTM Network UK was established in 2014 as a co-ordinated clinical and research response to the rising number of NTM infections. We are a multidisciplinary network of over 400 healthcare professionals and researchers from 170 centres in all four UK nations. Our aim is to provide the evidence to improve and maintain the quality of care for people affected by both pulmonary and extrapulmonary NTM disease.
Like many similar organisations, we at NTM Network UK need funding to continue the work we are doing. To enable this, we submit grant applications to national funding bodies. However, these processes take time and funding is never guaranteed. Another approach is to ask for individual donations to keep the Network running - and we have set up this page to ask if you would consider supporting our work.
Your donation will contribute to the Network’s administrative and project management costs that let us provide the service to its members, healthcare professionals, patients and the NHS for free.
Some examples of our current activity are:
• The development of Standards of Care for people living with NTM disease. The standards aim to ensure high quality care is available for everyone affected by NTM irrespective of where they live in the UK. Many of our members have been involved in the programme, which is the first of its kind in the world. It has been commended by professional bodies, patient advocacy groups and international experts for its relevance to improving patient care. The Standards will be completed in Summer 2024 and will be shared with colleagues internationally who have already expressed interest in adapting them for use in their own country.
• NTM education. We run a members meeting every 3 months with international expert speakers discussing a specific area of NTM care or research. Previous speakers include: Professor Graham Hatfull, Eberly Family Professor of Biotechnology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh on ‘Bacteriophage therapies for NTM', Dr Jennifer Honda, Director for the Center for Mycobacterial Treatment and Discovery, UT Tyler- School of Medicine on ‘Environmental approaches to NTM Disease prevention’, Prof Andres Floto Research Director, Cambridge Centre for Lung Infection, Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, on ‘Drug Therapies for NTM: what's on the horizon?’. We also organise education days with a faculty of experts delivering presentations on all aspects of NTM care and research. The next education day is planned for June 2024, but this is funding-dependent.
• Running the NTM interest groups and their activities- such as meetings to develop research proposals, guidance documents, training days and clinical case discussions. The NTM Network UK have eight interest groups including Nursing, Dietetics, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy, Clinical Immunology, Radiology, Extrapulmonary NTM and Basic science and Microbiology.
• Co-ordinating research studies such as the recent (and first) UK-wide survey of the management of NTM pulmonary disease (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37080255/)
If you are interested in donating, please be aware that you will be making a charitable donation to the Royal Free Hospital charity which can then be used by the NTM Network UK via Fund 228