Imperial College London Primary Care

Michelle van Velthoven from the Department of  Primary Care & Public Health  has been offered a prestigious Santander Mobility Award to assist her in an overseas research trip. This Award was made on  academic merit and her strong personal statement about the value of the trip to her research. The Award is funded directly by Santander, who are committed to investing in University education globally. Imperial has joined the Santander Universities Network, which provides universities across the world with scholarships and other funding. At Imperial, Santander provide scholarships, mobility awards and entrepreneurship prizes. Mobility awards provide Imperial staff and students with the opportunity to further their studies abroad and in doing so, enhance international academic collaboration and boost their own cultural development.

Anthony Laverty’s work on patient choice has received attention in both The Guardian and on Radio 4. A research assistant with CLAHRC, Anthony’s paper, published in the March edition of Health Affairs , finds that although there was widespread media coverage of serious lapses of performance in three hospitals, this had no overall effect in patient numbers at those hospitals. The results of the study, a culmination of work Anthony begun before joining the department, are in line with what is known from other settings. Anthony hopes the results of this paper will lead to the recognition that patient choice alone cannot be relied upon to improve quality in the NHS. He plans to follow this up with other work on more specific clinical areas.

The summer 2012 seminar series has now ended. The seminars started on Wednesday 25 May and were compiled by Dr Felix Greaves. He has organised some very exciting speakers to visit the Department this term and explains the benefits of the seminars. Felix says: “ The seminar series is important because it gives us access to some of the other fascinating work being done in our department, in other parts of Imperial and beyond. A real highlight of the series so far has been Professor Atun talking about the real challenges of global health funding, with wonderful examples fresh from his experiences operating at the highest levels at the Global Fund in Geneva ”. If you would like to get involved and become a part of the Autumn Seminar Series, please contact Jenna Mollaney.