Month: January 2015

Institute of Global Health Innovation update

IGHIStudent Challenges Competition: Enter the Dragons Den
Join us on Monday 2nd February for an interactive Dragon’s Den style event to find the winner of our annual Student Challenges Competition

IGHI’s New Non-Communicable Disease Forum
The Institute of Global Health Innovation’s new NCD Forum provides an opportunity for interdisciplinary discussions of NCDs in low-and-middle-income countries. The first one will take place on 19th February.

IGHI’s new interactive
Find out more about the institute with our new interactive brochure.

Upcoming World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) – 17-18th February 2015
The second World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) will take place on 17-18 February 2015 at the Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC). Six Forums have been established for WISH 2015. Each will be chaired and led by a recognized expert in the topic.

IGHI Policy Seminar: Sir David Nicholson discusses the NHS post-election
Ex NHS CEO hosts Policy Seminar for IGHI.

Annual Meeting of the Imperial-Wellcome Centre for Global Health Research
Health experts gathered for the 2nd annual meeting of the Wellcome Centre for Global Health Research

 

Jo Seed
Communications and Events Officer
Institute of Global Health Innovation

Partnership for Child Development update

PCDPCD release Annual Report 2013 – 14

PCD recently published its Annual Report 2013 – 14 outlining its ongoing successes in supporting governments to build the enabling environment to advance inclusive, scaled and sustainable school health and nutrition programmes. These programmes are improving the development, education and well-being of school-aged children worldwide. The report also highlights work in supporting government-led Home Grown School Feeding interventions by strengthening the links between school feeding programmes and the local smallholder farmers who supply them.

 

PCD co-hosts 4th Asian School Health and Nutrition Training Course

From 8 – 16 December PCD co-hosted the 4th Asia School Health and Nutrition (SHN) training course which brought together 37 participants from government, academia and civil society representing 12 countries in the region. During the course, lectures were delivered by international experts on SHN topics including dewormingWASHschool feeding and the inclusion of children with disabilities. To enhance interaction, participants also visited three local schools to learn from the Thai experience and developed country specific SHN action plans.

 

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

Institute of Clinical Sciences update

Jean Baptiste VannierERC Starting Grant awarded to Jean-Baptiste Vannier– Jean-Baptiste Vannier was awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant of €1.5 million for five years. He was selected from 3,273 applicants (9 % success rate). ERC Starting Grants support up-and-coming scientists who are about to establish a new research team and start conducting independent research. Jean-Baptiste, who joined the CSC in the autumn from CRUK, will investigate the role of telomeres in DNA replication. When telomeres fail to fold into these structures, the genome becomes unstable, which is a hallmark of every cancer.

vahid_samSynergy: Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant awarded to CSC and Imperial College Researchers – Vahid Shahrezaei from the Mathematics department at Imperial College and Sam Marguerat from the CSC’s Quantitative Gene Expression Group will be leading the £250,173 award to investigate noise in gene expression using single cells. The collaboration will unite Marguerat’s experimental skills with Shahrezaei’s theoretical knowledge in order to gain insight into the process of stochastic gene expression and protein noise, which describes the fluctuating number of molecules inside cells that causes seemingly identical cells to behave differently.

Link between COX-2 inhibitors and cardiovascular risk explained– Research news article on why COX-2 inhibitors, a class of widely prescribed anti-inflammatories, may lead to increased risk of heart attacks and strokes (published in Circulation by James Leiper/Jane Mitchell, Imperial/NHLI; reference: Blerina Ahmetaj-Shala, Nicholas S. Kirkby et al. ‘Evidence That Links Loss Of Cyclo-oxygenase-1 2 With Increased Asymmetric Dimethylarginine: Novel Explanation of Cardiovascular Side Effects Associated With Anti-inflammatory Drugs.’ Circulation, 9 December 2014. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.114.011591).

Almut Caspary
Institute of Clinical Science
Faculty of Medicine

Faculty Education Office update

The Senior Management Team has now moved to Charing Cross.  We are located on the first floor of the Reynold’s Building, so please do come and visit us if you are over there.  We will obviously still spending a fair amount of time at South Kensington.  The majority of the FEO are remaining in their current offices in SAF.

I am also pleased to inform you of two new appointments:

Dr Jo Harris has been appointed Deputy Head of the Undergraduate School. She is a General Practitioner and an Educator. She is currently studying for a doctorate (EdD ) in education at the Institute of Education and her research  interest is in assessment of professionalism of medical students. Jo is currently Director of Curriculum and Assessment, and will continue in that role.

Dr Carolyn Gabriel has taken up the role of Head of Careers Development.  I am sure most of you already know Carolyn, who has been very involved in education for a number of years, and was previously one of our Vertical Theme Heads.  She can be reached on Carolyn.Gabriel@imperial.nhs.uk.  I hope you will support her in developing careers as a theme throughout our undergraduate course.

Miss Susan English
Director of Education Management and Programme Director
Faculty Education Office (Medicine)

Babies and Bumps

New pPicture1arents and parents-to-be are invited to meet other Imperial colleagues in a similar situation for informal networking and mutual support.

HR will be present to answer any questions in relation to maternity and paternity leave. Refreshments will also be provided!

  • Thursday 19th February 3-4.30pm
  • Thursday 19th March 10-11.30am
  • Thursday 16th April 3-4.30pm
  • Thursday 28 May 10-11.30am
  • Thursday 18th June 3-4.30pm

Room 285, Section  of Paediatrics, 2nd Floor, Medical School Building, St Mary’s Campus

For further information please contact Sarah Wilkins

Dr Mahiben Maruthappue the first from the NHS to make Forbes 30 under 30

Dr Mahiben Maruthappu, Senior Fellow to the CEO of NHS England, and junior doctor in North West Thames Foundation School, becomes the first person from the NHS to make Forbes 30 under 30 since the list’s inception.

Dr Mahiben MaruthappuDr Maruthappu serves as Senior Fellow to Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, where he recently contributed to the Five Year Forward View, and in January, with Sir Bruce Keogh, launched the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA), a programme aiming to identify twenty tried and tested innovations from across the world and scale them in the NHS to improve patient care.

Outside of clinical practice he has a background in health systems research, policy and entrepreneurship, having published over 60 peer-reviewed articles, receiving over 50 awards and honours, advising organisations ranging from startups to the WHO, and serving as a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University.

Dr Maruthappu said “It was exciting to be included in the Forbes 30 under 30 list. Working in North West Thames has exposed me to a broad range of opportunities, both inside and outside of clinical practice, that I’m sure led to my nomination”.

Philipa Shallard
Foundation School/Undergraduate Services Manager
Faculty of Medicine

Professor Neena Modi elected President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health

Prof Neena ModiProfessor Neena Modi has been elected President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, taking up the role on 29 April 2015.

Neena is currently Professor of Neonatal Medicine at Imperial College London and also has clinical duties as a Honorary Consultant in Neonatal Medicine at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust where she is the senior consultant in a team providing neonatal care for a tertiary referral medical and surgical perinatal service for north-west London. She is also Chair of the BMJ Ethics Committee, leads a neonatal research group and has published many original research papers. Whilst Vice President for Research at the RCPCH, Professor Modi was the lead author on the RCPCH’s Turning the Tide report highlighting the need to strengthen child health research in the UK.

Commenting on her appointment, Professor Modi said:

“I’m profoundly honoured by the confidence my paediatric colleagues have shown in me. I in turn am confident that with the wealth of expertise they represent, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health will be a powerful force in the UK and will advocate tirelessly to improve the health and wellbeing of all children.”

Welcoming the appointment, RCPCH President Dr Hilary Cass said:

“Neena is a passionate advocate for child heath, and her experience as a clinician and leading researcher will be invaluable in her role as RCPCH President. I look forward to seeing the College continue to provide high quality education and training for paediatricians, expand its membership offer and lead the way in affecting policy change for the benefit of children and young people’s health.”

Professor Modi will take up the role following the Annual General Meeting on 29 April 2015 and serve three years as President. Until then she will sit on the College’s Council and Executive Committee along with Dr Hilary Cass, as President Elect.