Imperial College London Primary Care

Medical schools are encouraged to have some space in the curriculum to allow students to explore some subjects of their choice in greater depth - this is to encourage personal interests and in depth learning. At Imperial College London, final year specialty choice modules give students time to do just this; they run for 3 weeks at a time and repeat continuously from August to February so that as many students as possible have the opportunity to undertake these modules. Dr Ros Herbert, Health Inequalities and Medical Education Course Lead, describes her experience of establishing two new special study modules. “ In the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at Imperial College London, we have recently created two such modules, one in Health Inequalities and one in Medical Education. In the Health Inequalities, module students have had the opportunity to spend time in homeless clinics, refugee clinics, in a Southall surgery, with a prison doctor and in a teenage pregnancy cent...

Many of the staff in the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London, along with honorary and affiliated staff, are active uses of Twitter. A list of all the Twitter accounts associated with the department is appended below. Twitter Account Name 1.        Departmental account @Imperial_PCPH 2.        UG Teaching Unit @ICGPteaching 3.        Imperial GP Training Scheme @ImperialGpst 4.        Global eHealth Unit @eHealthImperial 5.        WHO Collaborating Centre @ImperialWHOCC 6.        Azeem Majeed @Azeem_Majeed 7.        International Conference of PCPH @IC_PCPH 8.  ...

It was a great privilege for me to introduce Professor Paul Aylin on the evening of 5 November 2015 on the occasion of his inaugural lecture. Professor Aylin is based in the Department of Primary Care and Public Health (part of the School of Public Health) at Imperial College London and is co-director of the Dr Foster Unit. He trained in Public Health Medicine and spent three years at the Office for National Statistics before coming to Imperial College in 1997. He became a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine in 2001. He is a non-executive director at West London Mental Health NHS Trust. Professor Aylin’s current research focuses on exploring variations in indicators of quality and safety using routinely collected administrative data including: out of hours hospital mortality; continuous monitoring of performance and safety; case-mix adjustment; and cancer care and indicators for late diagnosis. He has been an expert witness to both the Bristol and the Shipman Inquiry, ...

It was a great privilege to have Dr Stephen Weiss as our seminar speaker on Wednesday 28 October 2015. Dr Weiss is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. Dr Weiss spoke about his experiences during World War 2 when he served as a first scout in an American infantry rifle squad in Italy, France, and Germany. He landed on D-Day in Southern France. Listed as ‘Missing In Action' in France, he served with the French Resistance and an OSS Operational Group behind enemy lines. For these exploits, he was awarded the French Resistance Medal, two Croix de Guerre, and the American Bronze Star. President Jacques Chirac presented him with the Legion d’ Honneur in 1999. On 22nd June 2007 he was made an Officier de la Leigon d’ Honneur and in July 2013 he was promoted to Commandeur in the Order de la Leigon d’ Honneur. The Order is the highest decoration in France.

Our seminar speaker this week was Martin Lupton, Head of the Undergraduate School of Medicine at Imperial College London. Mr Lupton spoke on the topic of What should be the nature of a future doctor? With groups such as physician associates, specialist nurses and physiotherapists taking on many traditional medical roles, medical schools will need to rethink how they train medical students. Mr Lupton gave an interesting, thought-provoking talk on this topic. In the question and answer session, there was further discussion about post-graduate training of doctors, the role of continuous professional development in ensuring doctors remain competent, and the extent to which changes in skill-mix were being driven by the financial challenges the NHS faces.

The “GP Careers in the 21st Century conference” was a full day event that took place on Wednesday 9 th September at Imperial College, London. The title of the conference interested me. I realised I knew much about the structure of family practices in the past, and I am aware that general practice is going through a lot of changes currently, but I felt I knew very little about the details of a career in general practice in the future. My family GP was a grandmother, a practice partner and looked after three generations of my family. She had a wonderful work-life balance, autonomy over her work and seamless continuity of patient care. However, studying in fast-paced London and living through the ever changing climate of healthcare delivery, I worry that these attributes of the career are being eroded. Given the changes of upscaling practices, the bureaucracy of QOF targets that need to be met and the ever real threat of a significant pay-cut, could general practice really be a fulfilli...

The School of Public Health Opportunities Committee held a meeting today in the Department of Primary Care & Public Health to let staff know the changes that we will be making to improve departmental culture and organisation. The Athena SWAN action plan aims to enhance the working environment of our staff; promote career development opportunities; and improve how we can attract, keep and promote you so you feel supported and motivated in your work. Speakers at the event included Professor Elio Riboli, Professor Steven Riley, Dr Ioanna Tzoulaki, and Professor Azeem Majeed. Find out more about how the Imperial College School of Public Health achieved its Athena SWAN Silver Award for supporting the careers of women in science. Professor Elio Riboli preparing for his talk Members of the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at the start of the session

Usama Syed, a final year medical student in the Faculty of Medicine, was selected for a 2015 Imperial College London Outstanding Student Achievement Award. These awards are to recognize and commend outstanding achievement beyond the academic subject area.  Usama was nominated for his award by the Department of Primary Care and Public Health. Usama's achievements include: Founding a new society at the College - MedTech Imperial- designed to bring together students across the medical, engineering, and computing departments,  With colleagues coding a brand new mobile phone application designed to streamline the way front-line hospital staff provide feedback and quality improvement ideas to senior medical directors.  Researching and writing articles for the official Imperial College website on medical topics for public release. Editing a newsletter for a Health Centre in Clapham, London. In this role, he has written numerous articles for local residents on topics such...

By Maham Stanyon, GPVTS ST2 An engaging conference showcasing the variety and celebrating the diversity of career pathways in general practice. As a trainee the conference opens your eyes to the possibility of a job tailor made to your interests whether clinical, educational, academic or managerial, incorporating the holy grail of both patient care and job satisfaction. Throughout the day long event, the importance of mentoring and utilising the diverse generalist skill set to explore new avenues were reinforced as vital ingredients for success. Topics covered ranged clinical leadership opportunities and Darzi fellowships, to portfolio careers encompassing world travel, education and media medicine. Newly emerging fields pioneered by GPs such as out of hours medicine also shared the spotlight, with the launch of the first academic urgent care post announced to trainees. Unusually the speakers represented the entire experience spectrum, from newly qualified GPs to those at the pi...

By Sunila J Prasad On the 9 th September 2015, Imperial  Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) in collaboration with Health Education North West London (HENWL) and Hammersmith & Fulham GP Federation hosted the event ‘GP Careers in the 21 st Century’ at Charing Cross Campus, Imperial College London. The event aimed to promote the breadth and variety of careers within General Practice and attendees which included medical students, GP trainees and senior colleagues, heard from a number of speakers. As a fifth year medical student who was curious about what a career in General Practice could possibly entail, I looked forward to hearing about the diversity of opportunities available in this arena of medicine, as well as learning about what the future of General Practice may hold for myself and my fellow colleagues. The programme of listed speakers alone was an initial indicator of how rich and rewarding a career in General Practice could potentially be. Topics c...

On Wednesday 9 September 2015, Imperial College London, the Imperial Academic Health Sciences Centre, Health Education NW London and Hammersmith & Fulham GP Federation held a conference on 'GP Careers in the 21st Century'. The conference was aimed at medical students, GP Specialist Trainees, and qualified GPs. We were very pleased that around 25 students attended the event. Delegates were able to learn about opportunities for working in primary care in NW London. In addition to traditional GP roles, this included opportunities for working in urgent care, clinical leadership roles, education, research and GPSI roles in areas such as diabetes and ophthalmology.  Some of the delegates at the event Dr David Wingfield, Chair of the GP Federation, speaking at the event. Conference Programme 09:00-9:30 Coffee and Registration 09:30-9:45 Welcome: Professor Azeem Majeed – Dr Clare Etherington Dr David Wingfield – Dr Samia Hasan ...