Month: April 2014

A new five-year graduate medicine programme from 2015-16

After much consideration and discussion, the School of Medicine has taken the decision that it will no longer offer a four-year graduate entry programme with effect from 2015-16.

The new five-year programme

Graduate students will instead be able to apply for a more tailored, five-year programme with exemption from the BSc honours year.

This decision was taken in the light of the 2012 Graduate Entry review, student feedback about the intensity of the programme and the lack of opportunities to pursue research and scholarship, and the potential of full registration with the GMC being conferred on graduation, which would mean a four-year programme does not meet the requisite training hours to meet current EU requirements.

More information about this new programme will be provided in due course.

Chris Harris
Quality and Educational Development Manager
Faculty Education Office (Medicine)

Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund Networks of Excellence – deadline 12-noon, 9 May 2014

We are seeking to support novel biomedical research collaborations across disciplines and departments. Proposals for pilot or feasibility work for high risk projects, to support collaborative cohesion, test or develop new methods, or proof of concept studies are encouraged, rather than standard projects.  It is envisaged that the outcomes of supported work will form the basis of a major grant application. Whilst funding is available to support any research within the remit of the Wellcome Trust, networks undertaking interdisciplinary research in the themes of infectious disease, medical imaging and diabetes/metabolic medicine are particularly welcome.

How to apply?

If you wish to submit a proposal you should complete the project application form and submit it to ISSF@imperial.ac.uk by the 12noon, 9th May 2014. As we wish to fund a range of applications, a researcher cannot be principal investigator on more than one application, though this will not preclude applicants from being co-applicants on additional proposals. For further information please email ISSF@imperial.ac.uk or see the Networks of Excellence guidelines available at http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/researchstrategy/funding/wtissf

Dr Kimberley Trim
Research Strategy Officer
Faculty of Medicine

Imperial students win Institute of Medical Ethics national debating final

Imperial team and banner

Another success for Imperial College students: on the 29th of March, Imperial College won the Institute of Medical Ethics National Student Debating final at the Institute of Education.  Representing Imperial were: Claire Brash, Joe Gafton, Sarah Sturrock and Klara Weaver; all year 3 students:  ‘Having seen the calibre of the competition at the Southern Regional final a couple of weeks previously, we were prepared for a challenging afternoon of debating’ they explained.  The students had two weeks to prepare their arguments for the cases to be debated but did not know if they would be arguing for or against the motion.

The first debate was against Sheffield; the Imperial team defended the ability of the Doctor to ‘snoop’ on patients online to try to establish if the patient awaiting a liver transplant was genuinely abstinent from alcohol. The team delivered an excellent case cleverly justifying the breach of privacy on the grounds of the best interests of the patient rather than the utilitarian public interest argument of using scarce resources efficiently and won a place in the final round. The team had just 30 minutes to prepare their final debate – arguing against the motion that an autonomous request by a terminally ill patient for deep terminal sedation (i.e. rendering him unconscious until death) was ethically acceptable. They faced tough competition from Lancaster University but argued persuasively that an autonomous wish to give up autonomy through permanent sedation was no more acceptable than an autonomous wish to enter slavery and that the spiritual importance of death was of great value as a unifying human experience.

Students interested in representing Imperial College in the Institute Medical Ethics debating competition next year should get in touch with this year’s winners or:

Dr Wing May Kong
Vertical Theme Head 
Ethics Leadership and Professionalism

Institute of Global Health Innovation April update

IGHI

  • New Adjunct and Visiting Professors announced. Forming effective collaborations is important to the Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI). By working in partnership with established academics, policy makers and business leaders, we can make better-informed decisions and obtain a broader understanding of the issues facing global health today. IGHI are pleased to announce our new Adjunct and Visiting Professors who have recently been appointed within the institute.

 

Jo Seed
Communications and Events Officer
Institute of Global Health Innovation

Imperial BRC health informatics programme to facilitate research across AHSCs

Professor Dame Sally Davies

The NIHR Imperial BRC is a partner in a new £8M health informatics programme to enable the collaborative sharing of routinely collected NHS data to facilitate more effective clinical research.

The programme, called the NIHR Health Informatics Collaborative (NIHR-HIC), is a challenge from the Chief Medical Officer Professor Dame Sally Davies to the five NHS Trusts in England with the largest Biomedical Research Centres, i.e. Imperial, Oxford, Cambridge, UCLH and GSST, to collaborate and demonstrate how sharing of NHS clinical information held electronically, can facilitate more effective clinical research, and lead to benefits for patients and the public, researchers and NHS staff.

This new initiative was publicly announced recently by Dame Sally. It follows the government’s ‘Plan for Growth’ which details a number of actions designed to promote the UK as a competitive global hub for life sciences.

For Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust this initiative will deliver IT capability to support the sharing and use of NHS data for research in five scientific themes: viral hepatology (led by Graham Cooke and Mark Thursz), ovarian cancer (led by Christina Fotopoulou and Hani Gabra), renal transplantation (led by Adam McLean and David Taube) intensive care medicine (Led by Simon Ashworth and Stephen Brett) and acute coronary syndromes (led by John Chambers and Jamil Mayet). Each pan-BRC theme is led by one of the BRCs and Imperial is leading on Acute Coronary Syndrome.

Alongside these activities, the NIHR-HIC Programme will engage patients, the public and other stakeholders to agree an integrated governance framework that is flexible, proportionate, and serves to protect data confidentiality and uphold patient privacy at all times, while facilitating research.

The NIHR-HIC programme is managed through the AHSC Research Informatics Subcommittee chaired by Professor Paul Elliott, bringing together the ICHNT IT Department, Divisional Directors, the Caldicott Guardian, the Imperial tissue bank and the NHIR HIC theme leaders to develop and oversee the implementation of a comprehensive  IT strategy for research across the AHSC.

NIHR-HIC is the beginning of the informatics infrastructure that will be required to deliver the MedCity research linkage across the five AHSCs in Southern England.  It is anticipated the new research informatics infrastructure will go live in September 2014.

 

For more information contact:

Roger Tatoud, PhD.
Senior Programme Manager
Imperial College London
St Mary’s Campus – The Bays, 2nd Entrance
South Wharf Road
London W2 1NY UK
r.tatoud@imperial.ac.uk 020 3312 2560

Staff Photoshoot – Tuesday 6 May 2014

2265908696_eafe978f5d_zThe College is providing a free photo opportunity to any member of staff who would like to have a professional portrait taken. This is a fantastic chance to quickly gain a properly lit portrait picture, which can be used on your professional web page and elsewhere.

Many of the slots are now full, however  there are some still available at St Mary’s during the afternoon. Complete this online form to book your place.

Babies and Bumps New Parents’ Network

New parents and parents-to-be are invited to meet other Imperial colleagues in a similar situation for informal networking and mutual support over tea/coffee.

HR will be present to answer any questions in relation to maternity and paternity leave.

For further information of network meeting dates and details of who to contact, please view the relevant campus link below:

MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis & Modelling participate in World Health Day event at Houses of Parliament, coordinated by Malaria No More

MNM

This experimental event will be held in the Attlee Suite, Portcullis House, from 17.30 to 19.30 on 7 April 2014 – World Health Day, which this year is themed on vector-borne diseases.

Members of the malaria group within the MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis & Modelling at Imperial College London will encourage parliamentarians to investigate the implications of future malaria investment using two custom-built modelling games. The games will challenge attendees to determine the best way to spend the global malaria budget and to explore the implications of changing the global level of investment in malaria control.The Malaria No More goal is to engage new parliamentarians and motivate existing supportive parliamentarians for the coming critical year in the malaria campaign.

mosquitoThe aim is to build a large group of parliamentarians who have had direct experiential contact with the major malaria messages (e.g. achievement of last decade/cost effectiveness/vision of future).

The event will be attended by MPs including Jeremy Lefroy, Stephen O’Brien and Fiona O’Donnell together with journalists, DFID staff, SPADs, researchers, and APPMG members. MPs who attend will also be given a chance of a photo opportunity with Malaria No More’s own Mozzie Man and a press release relating to the number of lives their constituency has saved and protected from malaria.

Visit our website to find out more information about the malaria work undertaken in the MRC Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling.

Alison Reynolds
Diagnostics Modelling Consortium

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