Imperial College London Primary Care

Earlier this year, the department hosted a visit from a delegation from the Ministry of Health in the Republic of Macedonia . During the visit, academics in the department discussed the primary healthcare system in the Republic of Macedonia and ways in which the Department of Primary Care & Public Health could support both undergraduate and postgraduate training in primary care.

A reminder to all staff that the name of the department will change in January 2010 to the Department of Primary Care & Public Health . The new name reflects the work of the department better than the old name. Our department has the highest number of staff with specialist accreditation in public health of any department in Imperial College. The department also leads the Imperial College MPH programme and works closely with many NHS Departments of Public Health in London PCTs.

Three Academic Clinical Fellow Posts in Public Health linked to Imperial College are currently being advertised. For further details of the application process, please see the London Deanery website . The job description is also available on the London Deanery Website. The deadline for applications is December 4th 2009. The posts offer the opportunity to undertake public health training with an academic focus and dedicated time for research. Please note, these posts are only open to medically qualified candidates with full GMC registration.

Former chairman and founder of the International Education Fund , Adeel Iqbal, received Imperial College's prestigious 'Student Award for Outstanding Achievement'. Adeel and his dedicated team invested much energy and enthusiasm into developing an organisation which brings together the talents of enthusiastic students to bring about positive academic changes in third world countries. Amongst Adeel's major achievement has been partnering with a school for blind children in Kashmir. The IEF is growing rapidly and is now under the leadership of fifth year medical student Suha Bachir who is launching a project to help refugee children in the Western Sahara, Africa. This project is to be launched on the 11th November 2009 at Imperial College Business School.

Our lunchtime seminar at 12.30-1.30 pm on Wednesday October 14 will be given by Dr Jim Connelly, DIrector of Public Health at Brent PCT. Dr Connelly will speak on the evaluation of public health interventions.

Dr Eszter Vamos, Marie Curie Research Fellow in the Department of Primary Care & Social Medicine, presented her work on lower limb amputations in people with and without diabetes at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes 2009 Congress in Vienna. The talk went very well and Dr Vamos was invited to give a follow-up talk at King's College Hospital by the Chairman of her session.

The seminar programme for the Winter Term has now been finalised. The programme will start on October 14 2009 with a presentation by Dr Jim Connelly, Director of Public Health at Brent PCT. Other speakers later in the term will include Professor Elio Riboli, Head of the Division of Epidemiology, Public Health and Primary Care at Imperial College. The seminars are held in the departmental seminar room in the Reynolds Building (Imperial College Charing Cross Hospital Campus) at 12.30pm on Wednesdays. All welcome.

WE are now finalising our seminar programme for the Winter (October - December) term. An one interested in giving a semianr should contact Igor Wei (Igor.Wei04 at imperial.ac.uk) who is organising the programme.

The eHealth Unit in the Department of Primary Care & Social Medicine will be holding a masterclass on Thursday September 17th on realising the potential of telehealthcare to facilitate patient-centred care. This is one of a series of interactive Masterclasses on eHealth, supported by the NHS Connecting for Health Evaluation Programme (NHS CFHEP). The masterclass is aimed at policy makers, commissioners, healthcare professionals, students with an interest in the use of information technology in healthcare, as well as academics and industry. For further details and information on how to register, see the Masterclass Programme . Attendance is free of charge.

Congralations to Dr Chris Millett for his award of a HEFCE Clinical Senior Lectureship and to Dr Liz Koshy for her NIHR Researcher Development Award. Dr Millett will be supporting NIHR CLAHRC projects in NW London, as well as continuing his work on quality improvement in primary care. Dr Koshy will be completing a PhD on childhood infection under the supervision of Dr Sonia Saxena.

The department hosted a visit this week from a delegation from Taiwan, led by Professor Chung, Medical Superintendent of Taipei City Hospital. The delegation met a number of academics and clinicians from Imperial College and the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. The visit followed on from a reciprocal visit to Taiwan by members of the department. Amongst the areas discussed were how to strengthen the role of primary care in a health system; the use of new technology in healthcare; and methods for improving the quality, efficiency and accessibility of health services.

A new student club formed to act as a networking portal for doctors enrolled onto the various MSc, MBA courses at the Business School and the MPH Programme. It will provide a common ground for medics looking to diversify their career and take-up challenging roles both inside and outside of clinical medicine. We plan to invite alumni and other guest speakers to the business school who were in our position in the previous years to share their experiences and also invite companies working in the healthcare sector for campus presentations and networking sessions. In the long term, it will become the connecting link between the business school and the medical profession by organizing talks to discuss issues that matter the most to healthcare. Watch-out for the dates and do join us or email any suggestions you may have to suraj.bassi08 at imperial.ac.uk or ayodele.kazeem08 at imperial.ac.uk.