Imperial College London Primary Care

In addition to receiving confirmation that the Dr Foster Unit’s patient safety work will continue within the Centre for Patient Safety and Service Quality , work continues on the Global Comparators project, led by DFI, which involves 30 leading hospitals in five countries sharing data and outcomes for mutual learning and improvement. In February this year, Rene Gaudoin joined as research associate to continue work on the three-year NIHR-funded project on risk adjustment methods. He is comparing the performance of traditional logistic regression and more specialist machine learning approaches, with an emphasis on adjusting patient risk for comorbidity.

Dr Sonia Saxena from the Child Health Unit in the Department of Primary Care & Public Health has been invited by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to join the Clinical Outcome Review Programme: Child Health Reviews-UK (CHR-UK) which systematically examines the incidence and associated features of mortality and serious morbidity in 1-18 year olds. More information can be found on the RCPH website .  Liz Koshy and Jo Murray have had abstracts accepted for presentation at the RCPH annual conference in Glasgow which took place in May.  Latest publications for the team include papers on a study on the rates of C-difficile infection, a comparative study on using small bowel contrast ultrasound tests to monitor disease complications in patients with C-difficile, and methods of improving IUD uptake.

Dr Paul Booton has been appointed as the Chair of General Practice and Primary Care at St George’s, University of London. Paul is currently the Head of Undergraduate Primary Care Teaching at Imperial College London. Paul studied as an undergraduate at the London Hospital Medical College. After medical registration he worked as medical officer for the UN High Commission For Refugees amongst the Vietnamese ‘boat people’ in Hong Kong.  He continued his training in hospital medicine as a physician, before pursuing a career in general practice.  After a year in general practice in rural Suffolk, he returned to London as lecturer at Guy's and St Thomas' Medical School Department of Primary Care. He moved to King’s College London to set up the first experiments in teaching general medicine in general practice.  Subsequently, as undergraduate dean, he led the development of the new medical undergraduate curriculum for the newly formed merged medical school of Guy's...

The Global eHealth Unit has organised a 3-month research internship experience for Michelle Bruggeling. Michelle arrives from Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, where she is completing her final year of medical studies. She is currently working on a Cochrane review focused on interventions for recruiting smokers into cessation programs. The Unit has also been collaborating with researchers in China, and earlier this year Michelle van Velthoven (PhD student) presented an overview of some of the Global eHealth Unit’s projects and her own work on mobile health. Researchers from Beijing’s Capital Institute of Paediatrics (Department of Integrated Early Childhood Development) then visited the Department of Primary Care & Public Health and presented a forum to the unit on the Institute's current work, the Chinese health system, and their plans for eHealth.

Kate Woodhouse was awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours List for her work with the Mortlake community in southwest London. Kate is the Primary Care Undergraduate Education Manager in the Department of Public Health & Primary Care. Kate has been involved with the Mortlake Community Association for nearly 15 years, working with statutory and voluntary agencies like Age UK, Mind, NHS Richmond, and the Richmond Youth Services to bring small, important projects to local people. Examples of the work they do include offering a mental health drop-in service and support for young parents. She is also a Trustee for the Mortlake Hall which works with children in the area.  Kate says, “ It was a great day and I felt the whole community was recognised for its work ”.  Clearly Kate is pleased with her well-deserved award and we send her our congratulations on receiving such an honour.