Category: Events

Monthly update from the Institute of Global Health Innovation

News

Could bird songs help boost engagement with hearing tests?

A new venture will explore the use of bird songs to encourage engagement with hearing tests. The idea was born out of a two-day workshop led by the NIHR Imperial Patient Safety Translational Research Centre, developed to stimulate innovative ideas that could help improve communication for adults with hearing loss.

Find out more – http://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/190086/could-bird-songs-help-boost-engagement/

Could a smartphone app make hospitals safer?

In a new study, Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) scientists will begin evaluating whether the Streams app can help both patients and healthcare staff by making important medical information more readily available.

Find out more – http://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/190069/could-smartphone-make-hospitals-safer/

Running a hospital in a warzone (more…)

Monthly update from the Institute of Global Health Innovation

Joe Biden at Imperial, October 2018

A roundup of news, events and blog posts

Joe Biden delivers inaugural cancer research lecture at Imperial

IGHI was honoured to welcome the 47th Vice President of the United States Joe Biden, who delivered the inaugural lecture of the Imperial Cancer Research UK (CRUK) Centre.

Global Health Forum: Cancer technologies 

IGHI’s Global Health Forum returned on 11 October for the new academic year tackling cancer technologies.

IGHI Podcast: The Progress of Cancer Technologies

Ahead of October’s Global Health Forum, IGHI spoke to Abellona U to discuss how far we’ve come in cancer technologies, their translatability to lower and middle income countries and her research on hepatocellular carcinoma.

A Marginal Call in Breast Cancer

Mr Daniel Leff looks at the major challenge in margin problems when it comes to breast-conserving surgery for Breast Cancer Awareness month. (more…)

Monthly update from the Institute of Global Health Innovation

News and events

The impact of conflict in healthcare

IGHI’s May Forum gathered to discussed how healthcare is impacted by conflict.

Call for applicants for an early careers med tech workshop in China

Apply for an all expenses paid trip to China for a workshop on mental health technologies organised by the Hamlyn Centre.

Register now – Health Technology Assessment Toolkit consultation

Registration is open to join the International Decision Support Initiative’s Health Technology Assessment Toolkit consultation process.

IGHI Podcast

Healthcare amongst conflict

In this month’s podcast from the Institute of Global Health Innovation, we speak to Dr Esmita Charani, Senior Lead Pharmacist, Faculty of Medicine and Dr Emily Mayhew, Visiting Researcher and Imperial’s lead on the Paediatric Blast Injury Partnership.

Upcoming events

Register now – International Robotics Showcase in Liverpool

Registration now open for International Robotics Showcase in Liverpool. One-day showcase and speaker programme to highlight latest robotics innovation, to be held during International Business Festival. (more…)

CATO Research Symposium: Call for Abstracts

Submit an abstract

For the CATO Research Symposium research symposium taking on 27 June we are delighted that we will be joined by Professor Eric Alton, Chair of Respiratory Medicine and Gene Therapy at Imperial. He will be talking about his pioneering research which has evolved from understanding the basic pathophysiology of cystic fibrosis, through mice models into human gene therapy: an exquisite clinical academic research career for you all to emulate!

The research symposium is a key part of your clinical academic training/research career development – exposing you to a wider range of research than in your day-to-day work, giving you an opportunity to think of novel collaborations, techniques, and research questions, and see how you can develop a clinical academic career. You should attend if you are an Academic Foundation Doctor, ACF, in a clinical research training fellowship/PhD, CL or other post-doctoral researcher, or a non-medical clinical academic. The afternoon will include research presentations, the keynote presentation, posters and networking opportunities with colleagues and the CATO team.

We encourage you all to submit a research abstract, and there will be PRIZES for the best oral presentations and for the best research poster. This year we encourage you to think about your use of plain English when presenting your research for a non-clinical, non-scientific audience, and of course lay explanations are now needed on all grant and fellowship applications, so the practice is invaluable.

Abstracts must be submitted on the following template.

All submitted abstracts must include a plain English summary (125 words max, see guidance sheet) and we will offer an ADDITIONAL PRIZE for the very best.

Send your abstracts using the attached template to cato@imperial.ac.uk. We will advise you if you have been selected to give an oral presentation or to display a poster by early June. We are open for abstract submissions until 10.00hrs on Tuesday 29 May 2018.

Attend the CATO Research Symposium

Wednesday 27 June 2018, 13.00-18.30, W12 Conference Centre, Hammersmith Hospital

Please book a place ASAP for the symposium using the online booking form.

Monthly update from the Institute of Global Health Innovation

News

Innovative finger prick test could improve maternal healthcare across the globe

A social enterprise, Momoby, founded by Ana Luisa Neves of the Centre for Health Policy and Andrea Rodriguez-Martinez from the Department of Surgery & Cancer that aims to bring vital prenatal care to isolated regions has won the Venture Catalyst Challenge.

Read the full article

Events

The Global Response to AMR and Future Directions for Antimicrobial Stewardship

Join us on 23 April for a webinar with Professor Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer for England, hosted by the Centre for Health Policy’s Leading Health Systems Network.

Full details on event

Hamlyn Symposium on Medical Robotics

The Hamlyn Symposium celebrated its 10th year in 2017. The 2018 event will be held from Sunday 24th – Wednesday 27th June 2018, lasting over four days to include workshops on various clinical and technical topics as well as a two-day main conference with the participation of invited/keynote speakers, paper authors and delegates from leading medical, science and technology institutions. (more…)

Events from the Clinical Academic Training Office (CATO)

Where to start if you’ve been thinking about research!

Have you ever thought about doing some research because you want to make improvements for your patients or how you do your job?

Well, the Imperial Clinical Academic Training Office (CATO) has a session for you…

This informal and exploratory session could be just the start you need. This FREE event is open to all Imperial College Healthcare Trust/Imperial College/Royal Brompton and Royal Marsden Hospital’s non-medical healthcare professionals. Please see below details about the event and to book your place now.

Date: Thursday 3 May 2018

Time: 16:00-18:00

Venue: Wolfson Building, Hammersmith Hospital.

Secure your place

CATO Masterclass: Improving use of genomic information including accessing the 100,000 Genomes project, 8 May

Tuesday 8 May 2018,  17.30-19.30,  W12 Conference Centre, Hammersmith Hospital

This Masterclass will explore the cutting-edge use of genomic information both in clinical practice and clinical academic research, and will give an update on the 100,000 Genomes project and how clinical academics can use/access 100,000 Genomes. Whatever your research interests this will be of enormous interest, given the rapidly changing field,  and might allow you to better think how to access available data/materials.

Secure your place (more…)

Monthly update from the Institute of Global Health Innovation

News

Plug-and-play prostheses wins IGHI Student Challenges Competition

Artificial limbs that patients can fit and maintain themselves won both the top prize of £5,000 and an additional Audience Choice Award of £1,000 at this year’s Student Challenges Competition hosted by the Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI).

Exploring Data-based and AI approaches to Healthcare

This month IGHI collaborated with the EPSRC Centre for Mathematics of Precision Healthcare to discuss and learn about the latest advances in data-based and AI approaches in healthcare.

Read the article.

Former Special Adviser to UN Dr David Nabarro appointed Global Health Chair

Former Special Advisor to the UN and nominee for the WHO Director General, Dr David Nabarro has been appointed as Professor within Imperial’s Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI).

Visit our website to read more.

Global Health Forum: Healthy cities

IGHI host forum to discuss the current research on air pollution and health cities.

Visit our website to read more.

The impacts of Ukraine’s hike in tobacco tax

In the latest instalment of Imperial’s Global Health and Development lecture series, Dr Laura Webber (Director of Public Health Modelling at the UK Health Forum and Honorary Assistant Professor at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) presented evidence that predicted the avoidance of 127,000 new cases of smoking-related diseases by 2035 as a result of tobacco excise tax increases in Ukraine.

Visit our website to read more.

Patient Safety Translational Research Centre host patient safety Committee

Imperial NIHR Patient Safety Translational Research Centre within IGHI hosted 3rd & final NASEM Committee on Improving Quality of Healthcare Globally.

Visit our website to read more. (more…)

Monthly update from the Institute of Global Health Innovation

News

Global project to reduce health inequalities in cities around the world

A major new research partnership has been launched to explore ways of reducing health inequalities in cities around the world.

Visit our website to read more.

Food monitoring system being developed could help vulnerable, say researchers

A new project to research the underlying technology – funded by a $US 1.5 million grant the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – will see researchers from the Hamlyn Centre at Imperial College London developing wearable and wall mounted sensors and AI technology to monitor how households consume food.

Visit our website to read more.

Events

IGHI Student Challenges Competition: Enter the Dragon’s Den

Join us on Monday 19th March for our interactive Dragon’s Den style event to find the winner of our annual Student Challenges Competition.
The competition provides a platform for students based in the UK to showcase their global health research idea and win up to £5000 to develop it further. Runners-up and audience choice prizes will also be awarded.

Visit our website to register. (more…)

Medical Education Research Unit launches 2018 programme

The Faculty of Medicine Medical Education Research Unit (MERU) launches its 2018 programme of events today, and all are invited to the launch event this evening to find out more about MERU’s work and to network with current members.

Medical Education Research Unit event

Now entering its fourth year, MERU conducts and supports innovative educational research activity to evaluate and enhance Imperial’s teaching and curriculum.

It aims to build a community, including both staff and students, uniting them through an interest in medical education research. Made up of a multidisciplinary group of staff from Imperial, its NHS partners and sister unit at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in Singapore, the Unit also recruits and encourages interested students to become involved in existing research projects and to consider conducting their own research.

The Unit also supports members by offering financial support to those attending medical education conferences, and advises on ways to develop research questions into feasible studies that yield publishable data, as well as guidance on ethics applications.

Over the past three years, MERU has funded more than a dozen original research projects, made 64 travel awards allowing members to attend conferences, and delivered monthly meetings and workshops to small groups of interested staff. The Unit also offers one-to-one support to any members requiring it, and brings together those with similar research interests to allow them to assist and advise one another in their various projects. (more…)

Imperial College School of Medicine recognises excellence in undergraduate teaching

The undergraduate School’s annual awards ceremony took place on Wednesday 15 November at Imperial’s Charing Cross campus.

Awards table
The awards are presented jointly by the School of Medicine and the School of Medicine Students’ Union

In conjunction with the Medical Students’ Union, teaching staff of all levels and disciplines are recognised with a variety of awards, spanning both clinical and non-clinical teachers, personal tutors, teaching fellows and student support roles.

Students who nominate staff members are invited to speak about the recipient prior to each award’s presentation. This year, each noted in particular the care and attention given to individual students, and the emphasis put on the importance of learning, by the staff members recognised. (more…)

Macmillan Coffee Morning by National Centre for Mesothelioma Research

Catch up with your colleagues over a cuppa, enjoy some cake – and the money raised at the Coffee Morning will be donated to Macmillan to support people facing cancer.

Where

National Heart and Lung Institute
Guy Scadding Building
Royal Brompton Campus
Dovehouse Street
London
SW3 6LY

Host

Maija Maskuniitty

(more…)

ethIC@Imperial

Please join us for the first ethIC@Imperial event of the year on Friday 24 March. EthIC@Imperial is a series of lunchtime seminars organised by Imperial’s Science Communication Unit to facilitate critical discussion about ethical issues relating to academia. Past seminars have focused on research culture and the pressure to publish, bioethics, and Big Data. Our most recent meeting was on the ethics of big data, and included panelists from the Data Science Institute, New Scientist, IBM and the Guardian newspaper. (more…)

Monthly update from the Institute of Global Health Innovation

Upcoming events

3 March 2017 18.00-20.00
Students Challenges Competition: Enter the Dragon’s Den
Venue: Imperial College Business School LG101 – LGR, South Kensington campus

Join us on Monday 13 March for our interactive Dragon’s Den style event to find the winner of our annual Student Challenges Competition. The competition provides a platform for students based in the UK to showcase their global health research idea and win up to £5000 to develop it further. Runners-up and audience choice prizes will also be awarded. (more…)

Monthly update from the Institute of Global Health Innovation

Calling all UK based students!

Do you have an innovative idea for global health? Enter our Student Challenges Competition to win up to £5,000 to make that idea reality. Competition closes on 20 January at 11.59pm. Find out more by visiting the website.

Upcoming events

19 January, 15.30-17.30

Global Health Forum: Seasonality and health

Venue: Anthony de Rothschild Lecture Theatre, St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington

Seasonal patterns have a significant impact on our health. Many health problems are directly related to climate change. Infectious diseases, respiratory illnesses including asthma, and allergies continue to affect the day-to-day lives of individuals. This month’s Global Health Forum highlights the importance of seasons on our health. Register here. (more…)

Identifying priorities and filling the gaps: What’s next for NTDs research?

Timed to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the London Declaration on NTDs, this event will provide a broad overview of the latest scientific research for NTD control and elimination.

Through a series of rapid fire presentations it aims to provide a short sharp introduction to a wide range of new and cutting-edge research covering different diseases, specialities, countries, institutions, etc.

Alongside the rapid fire session, presentations will also be made by Sir Michael Dixon (Director of NHM) and  Prof Sir Roy Anderson (Director of LCNTDR) .

The evening event will be followed by a drinks reception.
(more…)

WHO Collaborating Centre for Public Health Education and Training

Imperial/WHO CC Alumni reunion in Riyadh

Professor Salman Rawaf hosted a gathering for Imperial MPH and PhD alumni as well as WHO CC Fellowship Alumni currently residing in Riyadh on the 13th October at the Hilton Double Tree in Riyadh. Attending the gathering was DR. Amal Hassanein, Ms Johara Al Saud, DR Turki Bin Moammer, Dr Thamer Al-Ohali, and Dr Ahmed Al Mujil.

Visit to King Abdul Aziz University College of Medicine, Jeddah

Professor Salman Rawaf and Dr Sondus Hassounah visited the King Abdul Aziz University College of Medicine in  Jeddah on 9 October and were hosted by Professor Waleed Melaat to discuss cross university research collaboration.

Focus Group Discussions in Riyadh, Jeddah, Tabuk, Dammam, and Abha

In collaboration with the Saudi Health Council (the coordinating body for the integration between the various health authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Professor Salman Rawaf and Dr Sondus Hassounah conducted five focus group discussions, over a period of two weeks (3 – 14 October), as part of the larger project to develop a national strategy for the development of Health Protection in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The team from Imperial College London’s WHO Collaborating Centre for Public Health Education and Training(Ms Christina Banks, Ms Alex Swaka, Mr Mohamed Al Saffar, Dr Sondus Hassounah, and Professor Salman Rawaf) have been involved in the project since its inception in early 2016 and have been working with their counter parts in Saudi Arabia on the multi-pronged project which includes a desk review of model country case studies, focus group discussions with relevant stakeholders, a nationally representative survey with 5,500 of the public, and in-depth interviews with policy makers.

The project is expected to continue till mid-2017 when the results will be shared and discussed with the Saudi Health Council and other partners in Saudi Arabia.

Mashael Al Sheikh: Systematic Review on Women and Cardiovascular Risks in KSA

Congratulations to Ms Mashael Al Sheikh, PhD student at the Imperial WHO Collaborating Centre for Public Health Education & Training, for her Systematic Review on Women and Cardiovascular Risks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is available for viewing here.

The article has significant public health implications and more results will be available shortly on the impact on culture (beliefs, behaviour etc) on health.

Health policies and family physicians alike should aim to address some of these issues outside the disease model.

Leadership in Health- National Primary Care Services, Kuwait

The WHO Collaborating Centre for Public Health Education and Training hosted Dr Rihab Wotayan (Managing Director for the National Primary Care Services in Kuwait) to discuss future collaboration with the centre and the department of Primary care and Public Health at Imperial. Dr Rihab and her team are interested in working with WHO CC to develop the capacity of, and train, their local health workforce, particularly in ‘Leadership in Health’. Dr Rihab is also keen to expand on the success of their recent investment in Primary Care doctors in the Kingdom and potentially send some of Kuwait’s GP trainees to take part in WHO CC 1-2 year post graduate research fellowship.

For the picture–Left to right: Professor Salman Rawaf (Director WHO CC), Dr Rihab Wotayan (Managing Director for the National Primary Care Services in Kuwait), Dr Sondus Hassounah (Teaching Fellow, WHO CC), Dr Weiam Ahmed (Honorary lecturer WHO CC).

Welcome to WHO CC Post-Graduate fellow Dr Abdulaziz Alqahtani

WHO Collaborating Centre for Public Health Education and Training was joined on 1st October by Dr Abdulaziz Alqahtani from Saudi Arabia. Dr Abdulaziz is a senior Registrar in Family Medicine at the Prince Sultan Military Medical City and will be following his postgraduate fellowship till end of August next year.

Ela Augustyniak
WHO Collaborating Centre for Public Health Education and Training

Monthly update from the Institute of Global Health Innovation

ighi
Calling all UK based students!

Do you have an innovative idea for global health? Enter our Student Challenges Competition to win up to £5,000 to make that idea reality.  Find out more by visiting the website.

Recent activities

On 14 September, the Centre for Health Policy’s Sowerby eHealth Forum hosted their third annual symposium on the benefits and barriers to sharing patient data.

On the same day, we also jointly hosted a special guest lecture by general practitioner and public health policy advocate Dr Suwit Wibulpolprasert on universal health coverage in Thailand. The event was jointly hosted by our new colleagues from IDSI who moved into our Centre for Health Policy recently.  Watch the lecture in full here.

On 20 September, we hosted our 6th Annual Lecture with Dr David Blumenthal on ‘High need, high cost patients: A universal challenge’.  Watch the lecture in full here and read the Storify coverage here.

Latest IGHI Blog articles

International Youth Day, plenty of reasons to celebrate – By Professor Beate Kampmann, Professor of Paediatrics and Director of IGHI’s Centre for International Child Health (CICH)

FEAST – five years on – By Professor Kathryn Maitland, Director of the IGHI Centre of African Research and Engagement.

A letter to…my buddy Sami*, who killed himself a year ago – By anonymous Research Fellow, Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London

Learning from Chinese health reforms – By Alexander Carter, Health Economist, Centre for Health Policy, IGHI

World First: UN Decide to Fight Antimicrobial Resistance – By guest bloggers Sarah Greaves, Katherine MacInnes and Alex Stockham, IN-PART

Ending the stigma this World Mental Health Day – By Dilkushi Poovendran, Research Assistant in Patient Experience and Patient Safety, Centre for Health Policy

The impact of Neglected Tropical Diseases on Universal Eye Health – By Professor Alan Fenwick of Imperial’s Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI)

Write for us

We are always on the lookout for new bloggers.  If you would like to write for our blog, please get in touch with the IGHI Communications Manager, Jo, at j.seed@imperial.ac.uk

Jo Seed
Communications Manage
Institute of Global Health Innovation

Apollo Therapeutics launch

The official Imperial launch of the Apollo Therapeutics took place on 6 October.  Apollo Therapeutics is a collaboration between three global pharmaceutical companies (GSK, J&J and AZ) and three Universities – Imperial, Cambridge and UCL.  This is the first time that three global pharmaceutical companies and the tech transfer offices of three world leading universities has come together to form a joint enterprise resulting in a truly innovative venture james-sterling-speaking-2aimed driving forward therapeutic innovation.  It is a £40 million fund to drive therapeutic innovation aims to to significantly improve the speed and potential of university research being translated into novel medicines. Apollo will support translational research, shaping projects at an early stage to optimise discovery and delivery of new breakthrough treatments for onward development. 

The launch event saw more than 75 Imperial academics, industry collaborators and Apollo representatives coming tog ether.  The event was opened by Professor James Stirling and the scheme was introduced by Ian Tomlinson (Apollo Therapeutics Chairman) and Richard Butt (Apollo Therapeutics CEO).  A panel Q&A session with The Apollo Leadership team together with Professor Jonathan Weber and Dr Mene Pangalos (Executive Vice President at AstraZeneca) discussed the opportunities for the College presented by the venture.

A call for biologics proposals is currently open; for more information about the scheme please see: http://apollotherapeutics.com/

Dr Sarah Wagstaffe
Head of Research Strategy
Faculty of Medicine

Postgraduate Connections

postgraduate-connections
The first PG Connections event for 2016-17 was a great success, and was attended by well over 200 students from MSc, MRes and PhD programmes across the Faculty of Medicine. Newly enrolled postgraduates took advantage of this chance to meet and network with other students at a reception after the main event. The highlight was a provocative talk by Imperial College Professor David Nutt, who was sacked in 2009 from the government’s Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs. Professor Nutt took many questions from the hall during his session, and from a queue of students after it had ended. The title of his talk, ‘Why scientists should also be revolutionaries’, was quite coincidentally echoed by the theme of the Faculty of Medicine summer school, ‘Revolutions in Biomedicine.’ Coordinator Dr Kirsty Flower showed slides from the school, and called for PG students interested in working as Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) during the 2017 programme mini-research project in cell/molecular biology.

The PG Connections Advisory Group was set up in 2016 to enable Faculty of Medicine PG students to contribute to events in the PG Connections series by suggesting themes, formats and speakers. The group was a success, and there will be an information meeting for interested students on 25 October.

For information about PG Connections or Revolutions in Biomedicine, contact: l.stables@imperial.ac.uk

Lottie Stables
Postgraduate Education Administrator
Faculty of Medicine

Institute of Global Health Innovation (IGHI) update

IGHI

Jo Seed
Communications Manager
Institute of Global Health Innovation