Month: December 2014

School of Medicine Awards for NHS Teachers 2014

School of Medicine Awards 25.11.2014 070The School of Medicine Awards for NHS Teachers evening took place on Tuesday 25 November.  The annual ceremony recognises the enormous contribution of NHS staff to the education of undergraduates and postgraduates in the Faculty of Medicine.  Fifteen members of staff received awards, which were presented by Professor Dermot Kelleher, Vice President (Health) and Dean of the Faculty Medicine.  Many of the students who nominated the winners attended to describe their teachers’ impact on their education at Imperial.  The ICSM Students’ Union Light Opera Society also performed for guests.

School of Medicine Awards 25.11.2014 004This year, two new awards were created: the Supporting the Student Experience award (for NHS staff in non-teaching roles), which was presented to Darren Pirson, Medical Education Manager at Ashford and St Peter’s NHS Foundation Trust.  The Distinguished Teacher award, only open to previous teaching award winners, was introduced to recognise a sustained, outstanding contribution to education.  The inaugural Award was given to Dr Naila Kamal of London North West Healthcare NHS Trust.  Dr Kamal gave a presentation on her experiences of teaching our students.

Closing the event, Professor Jenny Higham, Vice Dean (Education and Institutional Affairs) congratulated all the award winners, describing them as an inspiration to the next generation of doctors.

A full list of award winners can be found at: http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/prospectivestudents/undergraduate/contacts/awards/

Chris Harris
Quality and Educational Development Manager
Imperial College School of Medicine

Faculty Teaching Forum: resilience with compassion

The 2014 Faculty Teaching Forum took place at the Charing Cross campus on Thursday 27 November, with the theme of Resilience with Compassion.  The aim of the Forum is to bring together the wide community of teachers from across the Faculty and partner NHS providers for an afternoon focused on undergraduate medical education.  The plenary lecture was given by Dr Tom Evens, a former Imperial student, who shared his insights of resilience and compassion from his experiences both as an Olympic rowing coach and Air Ambulance Doctor.  The afternoon also comprised of an expert panel debate, a series of workshops and a number of short update presentations from staff in the Faculty.

One of the organisers for the Forum, Dr Jo Harris, Director of Curriculum and Assessment in the School of Medicine and Deputy Director of Primary Care Education, thanked all those who had attended and contributed to the event and highlighted the important opportunity to network, share ideas and reflect on practice.

Chris Harris
Quality and Educational Development Manager
Imperial College School of Medicine

Imperial Confidence in Concept (ICiC) Scheme 2015

The Faculty is delighted to report the success of our application to MRC for the 3rd round of Confidence in Concept (CiC) funding; our largest CiC award to date (£800k). This award will be used in conjunction with funds from NIHR Imperial BRC, Imperial Innovations, Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund as well as support from NIHR BRC at The Royal Marsden and The Institute of Cancer Research and Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation NHS Trust to create a fund in excess of £1.2M to provide vital pilot funding to bridge the potential gap between discovery research and well-developed applications for MRC Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme / Developmental Clinical Studies Funding Scheme support.
The 2015 ICiC Call for Proposals will be issued in January with two launch events showcasing ICiC-funded research, and further information on the scheme and other College translational funding opportunities. The South Kensington event will take place on 19th January and will focus on links with engineering and physical sciences. The second event at Hammersmith, taking place on 30th January, will include opportunities to attend Corporate Partnership surgeries with a variety of commercial partners. Register for these events at confidenceinconcept@imperial.ac.uk. Further details will be regarding the surgeries will be released by the Corporate Partnerships team (Vjera Magdalenic-Moussavi) by the end of the year.

Imperial Consultants – here to help you make an impact

During the 20+ years that Imperial Consultants (ICON) has been facilitating commercial consultancy projects for Imperial’s researchers, we have seen staff expertise make a real difference to the world in many ways. Contributing to the development of revolutionary new drugs and maximising patient care standards through innovative staff training techniques are just the tip of the iceberg.
With the rise of the impact agenda as a way to monitor the value of research, demonstrating research impact is now an essential element of any successful research career. The scope for FoM researchers to do this by acting as consultants to external organisations is expanding as the global quest for improvement and innovation in medicine and healthcare rolls on. The boundaries between academia and the outside world are becoming increasingly blurred and the need for academic, research-generated knowledge to address the latest challenges in the medical field is on the rise.
Undertaking consultancy often allows you to demonstrate the benefit that your expertise conveys to industry and society in a relatively short space of time, and it can provide real-world examples to give context to your teaching. Add the fact that it can spark new ideas for research and brings in a bit of extra income and you’d be right in thinking that it is a constructive route to explore….or resurrect if you’ve not undertaken a project in a while.

Introducing the FoM team at ICON

ICON is here to help you throughout the process. Our dedicated business development staff – Andreas Ballis and Louise Chisholm – can advise you on the consultancy market and pricing in your area of expertise. They specialise in building relationships with external organisations to develop consultancy opportunities for you. Our Head of Contracts – Azra Awan – can assist you in negotiating Terms and Conditions with the client to minimise your risk in undertaking the work. Finally, our project administration staff – Alfred Li, Elena Martynenko and Monica Villafana Cerna – are here to handle invoicing and payment and ensure that your project runs smoothly, allowing you to concentrate on the task in hand. For more information on our service, please download our Quick Guide to ICON’s Service (PDF file 295 KB).

People facilitating consultancy in medicine
Facilitating consultancy in medicine, from left to right: Monica Villafana Cerna, Elena Martynenko, Louise Chisholm, Andreas Ballis, Azra Awan, Alfred Li

If you would like to find out more about consultancy or have an opportunity that you would like to discuss, please visit the ICON website or contact Andreas Ballis (a.ballis@imperial.ac.uk) or Louise Chisholm (l.chisholm@imperial.ac.uk)

Jane Cryer
Marketing and Communications Officer
Imperial Consultants (ICON)

SCI selected to receive donations from MaxMind

SCI has been selected to receive donations this year from MaxMind, an industry-leading provider of IP intelligence and online fraud detection tools, based in Waltham, Massachusetts. SCI was selected on the strength of the Givewell recommendation (www.givewell.org ).

The donations will be used to expand SCI’s coverage of treatments for school aged children against schistosomiasis and intestinal worms in rural areas of Africa. By supporting these treatments, MaxMind will be bringing improved health and education to millions of vulnerable children.

alanfenwick-profilepic

Professor Alan Fenwick OBE
Professor of Tropical Parasitology
School of Public Health
Faculty of Medicine

 

 

Partnership for Child Development November 2014 Update

PCD Receives Grant for Global Health & Development

PCD  has been recently awarded by Grand Challenges Explorations an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for a project focused on improving market information among stakeholders of Kenya’s school feeding programme. The programme is a government-led intervention which procures food used in school meals locally from smallholder farmers and has been described as a ‘win-win’ for both children and farmers alike; with well-fed children more likely to attend and stay in school and farmers more secured of a livelihood. Specifically, the project will develop a software platform using everyday items such as mobile phones, to improve the tendering process between the programme’s stakeholders, namely, the schools (buyers), traders (buyers and sellers) and farmer groups (sellers).

Click here to read more

School-Based Deworming: A Clear Role for the European Commission

School-based-deworming-image-of-policy-paper-edit Periodic drug treatment for children in schools – known as school-based deworming – represents a highly strategic approach to tackling soil-transmitted helminths (STH) and schistosomiasis. Integrated programmes that deliver deworming, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), health education and other key interventions lead to even greater long-term impact.

A new paper called ‘School-Based Deworming’ (PDF download 2.8mb), from Imperial College London’s Partnership for Child Development argues that the European Commission (EC) is on the margins of the growing global movement against NTDs and with its financial resources, technical capacity and global network, the EC can and should be at the forefront of efforts to tackle the diseases, in particular schistosomiasis and STH. In order to rise to this task, the EC requires a clear policy direction, and must ensure that the control and elimination of schistosomiasis and STH are integrated into its education, nutrition and WASH strategies and programmes.

Click here to read more

Charlotte Broyd
Communications Officer
Partnership for Child Development
Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology

Disability Awareness Month and equality, diversity and disability information resources

The Faculty of Medicine has drawn together the College’s range of information resources on equality, diversity and disability issues into one easy-to-access webpage at http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/staff/

As part of Disability Awareness Month  which is taking place throughout November and December, the Equality & Diversity team has organised a number of events. Full information is available from the webpage at http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/equality/events

Trudy Breuss
Campus Operations Officer
Faculty of Medicine

NHLI Bring Your Child to Work Day

Following on from last year’s hugely popular pilot event, this year saw the return of the NHLI Bring Your Child to Work Day which is part of the department’s Athena SWAN initiative. Nearly 70 children along with their parents across all five NHLI campuses attended the fun-filled day of science-related activities and a Halloween tea party on the 30th of October. Like last year, tens of volunteers across the department got together to deliver an event that not only included exciting activities for the kids but also gave parents a chance to network with other parents in the department.

141030_imp_nhli_parents_034-editChildren at the Hammersmith campus were put straight to work, doing quizzes and data analysis, whereas at the Brompton campus kids became CSI investigators trying to find out who had kidnapped Monty the Macrophage. The CSI themed activities included comparing fingerprint evidence, separating ink from different pens on chromatography paper, and extracting DNA from a kiwifruit. Other highlights included dissecting a sheep’s heart in the Reach Out Lab, the excellent face painter at the Halloween party (a big hit among the kids!), and Provost James Stirling’s visit.

NHLI would like to thank all attendees and volunteers, and we are already much looking forward to next year’s event!

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Dr Aino-Maija Maskuniitty
Career Development Coordinator
National Heart & Lung Institute
Faculty of Medicine

What do rectal examinations, liver surgery and cardiovascular interventions have in common?

Apart from being medical and surgical procedures, they are nowadays important topics of interest in biomedical modelling and simulation research. Earlier this year I had a paper accepted at the 6th International Symposium on Biomedical Simulation (ISBMS) and a month ago, in October, I went to Strasbourg to present it. I was looking forward to hearing some Alsatian being spoken, although given my basic French skills I didn’t actually notice a difference. ISBMS was organised by the SiMMS group at Imperial College London and by the SHACRA team at INRIA. The event was hosted at IRCAD (Research Institute against Digestive Cancer) in a high-tech room that resemble those at the UN where important topics are also discussed. I found the symposium a great opportunity to discuss new approaches and challenges in the area among experts in the field.

Researchers presented results about physics-based modelling of both soft tissue (organs, vasculature, skin, muscles) and bone structures related to training systems and haptics (enabling the sense of touch in virtual systems), vascular modelling, deformation during image acquisition, surgical planning, and analysis, characterisation and validation studies. I presented a haptics and deformation modelling approach to simulating Digital Rectal Examinations (DRE) using patient-specific models captured via MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). The results from this paper will allow junior doctors to gain the necessary skills to perform DRE more efficiently compared to existing teaching methods.

ISBMS Presentation

Keynote speakers included Prof Mathias Brieu (Biomechanical Lab, Ecole Centrale Lille) who signalled the importance of modelling patient-specific data and the need for parameters that allow modelling differences in patients. Francisco Chinesta (Ecole Centrale Nantes) and Elias Cueto (I3A, Zaragoza) presented a computational vademecum (where all solutions are pre-computed) to model organ deformation by the parameterisation and further decomposition of relevant variables that are present during simulation.

I was captivated by the tranquillity of the city and it was interesting to learn how Strasbourg, now home to the European Parliament and Council of Europe, has been inhabited for 600,000 years. The city was occupied by the Romans (Argentoratum, 12BC) and was controlled later on by Alemanni, Huns and Franks (Strazburg, 5th century). The revolution of 1332 heralded 300 years of Strasbourg as a republic, before it was annexed by Louis XIV of France (1681), by the German Empire (1871) and finally by France (1919) following the Treaty of Versailles. Strasbourg Cathedral, III river and the area called Petite-France were beautiful, and this beauty extends to the city’s cuisine…Choucroute, Tarte FlambéeAlsacienne and La Terrine de Canard were exquisite.

Roger Kneebone’s recent feature in The Guardian ‘The Doctor Stitching Together Medicine and Art‘.

 

Alejandro Granados

Research Assistant

Department of Surgery and Cancer

“From bench to bedside – is personalised medicine the future?” CSC Chain-Florey Fellows invited leading experts to have their say

The MRC Clinical Sciences Centre’s Chain-Florey Fellows met at the annual workshop last Thursday (13 November) to present the researchthey have been working on at the CSC, and take part in the lively discussions that followed.

The CSC’s Chain-Florey Clinical Research Fellowships offer medical graduates the opportunity to complete PhDs in basic science at the CSC. Clinically trained Fellows develop a unique appreciation of the practical application of treatments and bring a valuable perspective to science research. Since the scheme’s inception in 2009, 17 Fellowships have been awarded and graduates have emerged ready to tackle clinical research questions with scientific precision. The scheme is jointly funded by the MRC and NIHR through the Imperial BRC.

Every year, the most senior fellows showcase their research in front of an audience of medical experts. This year, Dr Allifia Abbas Newsholme, Dr Philip Webster and Dr Andrew Innes gave fascinating talks that reflected the high quality of training in basic science that they received on the three-year fellowship.

Allifia Abbas Newsholme, who is now close to completing the fellowship with Amanda Fisher’s Lymphocyte Development Group, kicked off the Chain-Florey presentations with a talk on ‘Non-invasive imaging of imprinted gene expression’. She is working to devise a system to image changes in the expression of the CDKNIC gene. Mutations in this gene cause Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, which is characterised by an increased risk of tumour formation. Originally from Dubai, Allifia embarked on the fellowship with an undergraduate degree from the University of Leeds, an intercalated BSc in immunology at the Royal Free in London, and two years of training in her specialty of Nephrology at the London Deanery.

Philip Webster, who has completed his PhD with Anthony Uren’s Cancer Genomics Group, presented his research on the genetics and kinetics of BCL2 driven lymphoid malignancies. BCL2 is a gene involved in preventing programmed cell death, known as apoptosis. If the gene is overexpressed it prevents apoptosis. Cells remain alive for too long, leading to cancers and autoimmune diseases. By identifying genes that are commonly mutated with BCL2, Phil altered their expression in lymphoma cells to investigate the role they play in the development of lymphoma – a cancer of white blood cells. Phil trained at Nottingham University Medical School and has worked across the UK and Australia. In 2007, he came to London and later began his specialist training as nephrologist. Having returned to his specialty training in renal medicine, he intends to pursue an academic career path. He is currently renal registrar at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

“The Chain-Florey Fellowship is an excellent opportunity to acquire solid, basic science training for any doctor intending to have a career in academia. I wanted to gain knowledge, experience and learn new techniques within the genomics of the immune system and then apply this to my interest in autoimmune diseases,” he says.

Andrew Innes’s talk was titled, ‘Investigating senescence regulation: a telomere damage model.’ Andrew, who has almost completed the fellowship with Jesús Gil’s Cell Proliferation Group, looked into the genes that control senescence in the natural ageing process. “Senescence is well known for its role in controlling cancers, but its role in fibrotic disorders is less well understood,” he says. “I’m interested in post-transplant fibrotic disease, specifically Graft Versus Host Disease (DVHD). There’s a lot of evidence that this mimics autoimmune disease, but there is also evidence that could link it to senescence.” Andrew approached the bench with a firmer grounding in basic research than many other Chain-Florey Fellows because he had finished a nine-month Academic Clinical Fellowship at Imperial College with Francesco Dazzi. After training in Dundee, Glasgow and Manchester, Andrew moved to London in 2008 to specialize in Haematology.

Their talks were followed by a riveting panel discussion on the future of personalized medicine. The panelists grappling with this divisive topic were:

 

Dr Peter Campbell – Head of Cancer Genetics and Genomics at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and joint head of the Cancer Genome Project.

Professor Irene Roberts – Head of the Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Group at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine.

Dr Anne-Marie Coriat – Director of Capacity Skills and Infrastructure at the MRC.

Dr Sohaila Rastan – President and Chief Executive Officer at Ceros Limited and Chief Scientific Advisor of the RNID.

Professor Jonathan Weber – Director of Research at Imperial NIHR Biomedical Research Centre.

Dr Jeremy Griggs – Biology Leader and Biologist in the Discovery Partnerships with Academia team at GlaxoSmithKline.

 

The afternoon ended with a keynote speech from Dr Peter Campbell. He discussed ‘the vast somatic mutational landscape of cancers’, with particular reference to the molecular pathology of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML).

To read more about the CSC Chain-Florey scheme, its sponsors and advocates, current and previous Fellows, please visit the CSC website.

 

Almut Caspary
Institute of Clinical Science
Faculty of Medicine

South Kensington Campus – Centralised booking system for meeting rooms

There is now an online booking system available for Faulty of Medicine meeting rooms in the Sir Alexander Building and Flowers buildings, South Kensington Campus.   The new system has the advantages to gather in a single place meeting rooms with information on location, equipment and capacity.  Importantly,  booking is now done faster and easier by providing room availability updated daily.

Please check in the link:

http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/staff/meetingrooms/

I would like to thank Faculty of Medicine for support and give special thanks to people that made possible this project: Michele Foot, who coordinated the team, and the help from Taylor Bennie, Jeremy Jones, James Moore, Al McCartney, Andrew Pritchard, Peter Moore and Kylie Glasgow.

We hope you find the new system useful and we would appreciate any comments and suggestions to improve it.

Dr Vania Braga
Reader in Cell-cell Adhesion Signalling
National Heart & Lung Institute
Faculty of Medicine

Daniel Cappon Prize 2014

Applications are invited for the Daniel Cappon Prize. This is a biennial award of £500 open to students or recent graduates from the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College (in last 2-yrs), as well as postgraduates on the St Mary’s & Charing
Cross Psychiatric Training Schemes, in recognition of a published article in a medical journal or reputable non-medical publication, on a topic relating to the widest aspect of psychosocial problems.

Candidates should email a copy of their selected article, whichshould have been published, or be in press, by 30th November 2014, to Nicole Hickey (n.hickey@imperial.ac.uk) using theSubject title ‘Daniel Cappon Prize’) by 19th December 2014, together with a covering letter describing the background to the work, their part in it, and why the article merits consideration for the Prize.

The winner will be announced in January 2015 & invited to present at a Research meeting.
 
Nicole Hickey MSc MBPsS
Admin Secretary
Centre for Mental Health

Best paper award won at the #design4learning conference

Dr Maria Toro-Troconis, Mr Ashish Hemani and Dr Kevin Murphy won best paper award at the #design4learning conference run by the Open University (OU) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA) on the 26 & 27 November 2014 . HIG01S0002_Logo_Primary_Blue_RGB_MV1ou-logo

Following a competitive selection the paper entitled ‘Learning Design in the 21st century. Blended Learning Design Tool (BLEnDT©) and MOOCit©’ won the best paper award.

 

The paper discussed The Blended Learning Design Tool (BLEnDT©) developed by Dr Toro-Troconis at the School of Medicine and the implementation and findings in the design of a blended learning course for the Respiratory Muscles tutorial in Year 1 of the MBBS course.

 

The Blended Learning Design Tool (BLEnDT©) introduces an instructional framework for the design of blended learning approaches identifying the learning outcomes that lend themselves to interactive self-guided online learning following an Instructionist approach and the learning outcomes that are best suited for face to face delivery or online delivery following a Constructivist/Collaborative approach.

 

BLEnDT© is currently used at the School of Medicine at Imperial College London and by the Imperial College Curriculum Development team – Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.

 

The School of Health Sciences at City University London, the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning at King’s College London and the University College London (UCL) are also collaborating in the use of BLEnDT©.

 

More information about BLEnDT©: http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/elearning/blendt/
#design4learning conference: http://design4learning.org.uk

#BLEnDTImperial
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Dr Maria Toro-Troconis
E-Learning Strategy and Development Manager
Faculty of Medicine