Imperial College London Primary Care

Tomorrow's Doctors 2009 highlighted the importance of undergraduates acquiring leadership skills and set out learning outcomes required of medical students. The medical leadership competency framework was commissioned in 2006 by the Department of Health and jointly compiled by the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, and the Academy for Medical Royal Colleges as part of a wider UK project called ‘enhancing engagement in leadership’. This framework lists the key competences that medical students require to become involved in improving and delivering future health services. It also maps these competences to the learning outcomes. In a paper published in JRSM Short Reports , Sian Powell and Graham Easton design online questionnaire to explore current leadership teaching in an undergraduate curriculum, using the medical leadership competency framework (MLCF). Sixty-nine course leads were invited to participate in the questionnaire study. Course leads were asked whether they...

Free bus passes for over-60s may be encouraging older people to be more physically active, say the authors of a study published in the American Journal of Public Health by researchers from the Department of Public Health & Primary Care at Imperial College London. The researchers reached their conclusion by analysing four years of data from the UK National Travel Survey. They found that people with a bus pass are more likely to walk frequently and take more journeys by "active travel" - defined as walking, cycling or using public transport. These associations cut across socio-economic groups, suggesting that wealthier and poorer people are benefiting from the scheme equally. Keeping physically active helps to maintain mental wellbeing, mobility and muscle strength in older people and reduces their risk of cardiovascular disease, falls and fractures. Previous research has shown that 15 minutes of moderate daily exercise is associated with a 12 per cent lower risk of dea...

This is an exciting opportunity for an individual with a Master’s degree or equivalent in Health Services Management/research or a related field. The post holder will be a member of the London (North West) Comprehensive Local Research Network (CLRN) team, responsible for managing a wide variety of projects to support research activity in primary care. The aim of the post is to widen participation in research, particularly in North West London, and ensure that patients and healthcare professionals from primary care are able to participate, and benefit from, clinical research in all areas of disease and healthcare. The appointee will be based at the Charing Cross Hospital campus in Hammersmith, but the role will require frequent travel to general practices across NW London, the CLRN host organisation in Northwick Park Hospital, as well as other collaborating organisations in North West London. The post holder will have substantial experience of healthcare management, extensive knowl...

In a study published in JRSM Short Reports , Sian Powell and Graham Easton from the Department of Primary Care & Public Health at Imperial College evaluated medical students' perceptions of a new community-based surgical module being delivered as part of the third-year clinical methods teaching (CMT) course at Imperial College London. They carried out focus group interviews with medical students who had recently completed the surgical module. Two groups of fourth-year medical students were invited to participate in the focus groups. The first group consisted of seven students from the surgery and Anaesthesia BSc course. The second group consisted of a random sample of five students from other BSc courses at Imperial College. Students' opinions of surgical teaching delivered in the community compared favourably with the surgical teaching delivered in hospitals. Students identified the key benefits as: having protected time to learn regular access to suitable patient...