Research Echo Service, Cambridge
Advancing Cardiovascular Research Through High-Quality Diagnostic Services
The Research Echo Service, Cambridge is a specialist cardiovascular diagnostics and clinical-research core-lab-style facility dedicated to supporting academic, NHS and commercial clinical trials. Established in 2016 and EACVI-accredited since 2019, our mission is to provide high-quality, protocol-driven cardiovascular investigations that enable researchers and sponsors to deliver studies efficiently while maintaining the highest standards of patient care and data quality.
Led by experienced and accredited cardiac physiologists, the clinic combines clinical expertise with research excellence to support studies ranging from early-phase drug development to multicentre outcome trials.
Our facility provides a comprehensive range of non-invasive cardiovascular investigations, performed in accordance with study protocols, Good Clinical Practice (GCP), and sponsor or core laboratory requirements.
Our Services
The Research Echo Service provides a comprehensive cardiovascular diagnostic offering, including:
- Transthoracic echocardiography (2D and 3D)
- Cardiac safety echocardiography
- Serial protocol echocardiography
- 12-lead electrocardiography (ECG)
- Beat-to-beat haemodynamic assessment
- Vascular ultrasound assessment (FMD)
- DICOM image acquisition, storage and transfer to sponsor core laboratories
- Cardiovascular safety assessments for Serious Adverse Events (SAEs)
Our flexible service model allows investigations to be performed within research facilities, private hospitals, NHS sites or dedicated research units, helping minimise delays associated with external referrals and improving protocol compliance.
Conditions and Therapeutic Areas
We support research across a broad range of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, including:
- Heart failure
- Cardiomyopathy
- Coronary artery disease
- Atrial fibrillation and cardiac arrhythmias
- Hypertension
- Pulmonary hypertension
- Structural heart disease
- Valvular heart disease
- Cardio-oncology
- Diabetes and cardiometabolic disease
Research Support
The clinic has extensive experience supporting commercial and investigator-led clinical trials. We work closely with pharmaceutical companies, contract research organisations (CROs), medical device manufacturers and academic institutions to deliver high-quality cardiovascular endpoint assessments.
Our research support includes:
- Protocol feasibility and cardiovascular endpoint planning
- Study-specific imaging protocols
- Site initiation and investigator training
- Standardised image acquisition
- Quality assurance and image review
- DICOM transfer to sponsor or independent core laboratories
- Rapid reporting and turnaround times
- Cardiovascular safety monitoring throughout the study
Quality Assurance & EACVI Accreditation
The laboratory is accredited by the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI) of the European Society of Cardiology — the international benchmark for echocardiography quality. EACVI Laboratory Accreditation certifies that a service meets rigorous standards for image acquisition, reporting, staff qualifications, equipment maintenance and continuous quality improvement.
Accreditation is granted only after independent peer review of representative studies, standard operating procedures and departmental audit outputs. Cambridge is one of a small number of UK laboratories to hold current EACVI accreditation, providing sponsors, investigators and core laboratories with assurance that trial-grade cardiovascular data are being generated to a consistent, internationally recognised standard.
- Studies performed by BSE- or EACVI-accredited cardiac physiologists
- Written standard operating procedures for every acquisition and reporting workflow
- Regular internal audit and inter-reader concordance review
- Blinded core-lab-style offline analysis where required
- Full DICOM traceability and audit trail from acquisition to sponsor transfer
- Ongoing continuing professional development for all staff