Recognising the power of people in the fight against COVID

Awards, awards – it’s always nice to get some recognition for a project well done. But recently we were delighted to celebrate a slightly different win; recognition for one of our team and their work outside of Cuttsy+Cuttsy!  

Philippa Pristerà, our Patient Engagement Strategy Lead, spends two days a week as a Research Associate and public involvement advisor within the School of Public Health at Imperial College London.  Over the past 15 months, Phil has been committed to engaging and involving the public in the College’s highly acclaimed REACT (Real-time Assessment of Community Transmission) study, as well as facilitating broader involvement in Imperial's COVID-19 response when the pandemic first emerged.

The REACT studies form the largest COVID-19 surveillance programme in the world; collecting data from over 2 million people in England to develop deeper understanding and more accurate estimates of how the disease is spreading, as well as helping to inform the Government’s control strategies. It has also recently been expanded to better understand Long COVID.

At Imperial College’s recent President’s 2021 Awards, the whole REACT study team was awarded the ‘President’s Medal for Outstanding Research Team’, and Phil was also Highly Commended in the ‘Individual Achievement Award for Societal Engagement’ for her individual contributions throughout the year.

‘We’re so proud of Phil and this amazing achievement. The REACT study, like so many critical health initiatives, was dependent on public buy-in and participation – Phil’s breadth of expertise and efforts to enable this were an important part of this landmark initiative.’  Caroline Benson, Co-founder and Director, Cuttsy+Cuttsy

We couldn’t agree more, so from everyone here at Cuttsy+Cuttsy, ‘Congratulations Phil!’

‍