About Us
Working together to improve care for people with Long Covid and ME/CFS
Our team and partners
Chief Investigator
Professor Manoj Sivan, Clinical Professor in Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Leeds.
[Staff Profiles]
Academic partners
- University of Leeds
- University of Leicester
- University of Oxford
NHS service partners
HERITAGE works with specialist Long COVID and ME/CFS services in:
HERITAGE works with specialist Long COVID and ME/CFS services in:
- Leeds
- Leicester
- Hertfordshire
- Cornwall
Together, these partners bring expertise in rehabilitation medicine, general practice, respiratory medicine, psychology, health economics, qualitative research and service improvement.
Patient and Public Involvement (PPI)
People with lived experience of Long Covid and ME/CFS have been involved in HERITAGE from the very beginning. They helped shape the research questions, design the study, and choose outcome measures that are meaningful and manageable.
We have a dedicated Patient Advisory Group (PAG) who:
- Advise on study design and materials
- Help ensure our questionnaires are acceptable and not overly burdensome
- Co‑develop interview guides and topics for the Quality Improvement Collaborative
- Work with us to interpret findings and agree priorities for change
- Co‑produce plain‑language summaries, webinars and other resources for patients and the public
This means that patient and carer voices are embedded at every stage of HERITAGE – not just consulted, but acting as partners in the research.
ELAROS
ELAROS is a UK‑based digital health company and a commercial partner for the HERITAGE study. ELAROS provides the secure digital platform used to collect patient‑reported outcome measures (PROMs) across our Long Covid and ME/CFS cohorts. The platform is already used within NHS Long Covid services and was implemented in earlier NIHR research, including the LOCOMOTION study.
Our funder and sponsor
Funder
HERITAGE is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through the Health and Social Care Delivery Research (HSDR) Programme (Award ID: NIHR174857).
Sponsor
The study is sponsored by the University of Leeds, which takes overall responsibility for the initiation, management and governance of the study, in line with the UK Policy Framework for Health and Social Care Research.