On Thursday 9 February, Imperial College London hosted a new edition of its Lates programme – evening events aimed at young adults to learn about science and meet researchers.
The theme of this event was ‘Drug Experiments’, where visitors could take a trip through the science of marvellous medicines, notorious narcotics, and everyday cravings – and PRESTIGE-AF took the opportunity to engage the crowds with drug trials with our custom, pop-up escape room.
Over the course of the evening, six groups of visitors took the plunge to ‘escape the clinic’. Each group were put in the position of clinicians given a very special task: Professor Roland Veltkamp had to rush off due to an emergency, but he needs to enrol a patient into the PRESTIGE-AF trial within the next 30 minutes!
Together, teams had to tackle various puzzles – from a brain MRI scan jigsaw, to a cypher based on a research paper, to performing a blood spot that magically made the code to a locked case appear – in order to find out the information required to enrol their patient.
Hard work and determination meant all teams managed to enrol their patient and escape the clinic – all whilst learning about atrial fibrillation and intracerebral haemorrhage along the way!
