Imperial College London Primary Care

Academic doctors Dr Graham Easton, Dr Carol Cooper and Dr Martin Block from the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College London discuss how they became involved in medical writing and publishing. Watch the video ot their discussion .

September saw key members of the senior faculty team from Imperial College including our Director, Dr Sonia Kumar and Deputy Head of Undergraduate Medicine, Dr Jo Harris visit Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts for a fact finding mission. Harvard’s new medical curriculum “Pathways” has the integration of clinically relevant science and early patient exposure at its core, and this is woven into the fabric of all their teaching sessions. This ethos is plain to see in their small group teaching as well as their new “Practice of Medicine” course. Faculty members were able to participate in some of these highly engaging student roleplays and take part in a tutorial on the topic of empathy in medical students. Healthcare is obviously managed in a different way in the United States however Cambridge is possibly more similar to the UK model since this hosts one of the few publicly funded hospitals in the country. Primary Care also has a different meaning and comprises not ...

Dr Graham Easton On Wednesday 12 October I held an interview with our own Dr Gra ham Easton, Program Director of our GP training scheme and author of the recently published fictional GP surgery book "The Appointment". Yo u can listen to the full audio of the appointment on our new Soundcloud page  here Ben Broglia: What do you find rewarding about teaching Imperial students? Graham Easton: One of the great things is teaching people who are enthusiastic, keen, bright and passionate, which helps me refocus on why I went into medicine. It’s easy to get bogged down in the details of surgery, and teaching gives me the opportunity to step back. It gives me a chance to reflect on what we do and refresh my clinical skills, such as the neurological exam which I hated as a student! The final thing for me is the thrill of inspiring students, and the challenge of explaining a topic. BB: You recently had published a new book “The Appointment”, the story of a fictional morn...

On Wednesday 16 November 2016 the GP Teaching Team are organising a celebration of medical education around the theme “Tomorrow’s World: Educating Scientists, Doctors and Leaders of the future” in conjunction with the Faculty of Medicine. This annual event brings together faculty staff, clinicians and researchers for an exciting afternoon of innovative workshops, inspirational speeches, and of course the much-loved NHS Teachers Awards. This year, we are very proud to welcome Visiting Professor of Surgical Education at the University of Oxford Richard Canter to give the keynote speech on the subject of leadership, and are looking forward to an afternoon panel debate on medical student selection. Our workshop programme this year focuses on some of the current and future developments in medical education being spearheaded by Imperial College, including the use of Virtual Reality and Digital Learning and longitudinal integrated apprenticeships as seen in our pilot ICA course w...

Giles Kisby and Dr Radha Modgil at the BBC Radio 1 studio This placement has been a real eye opener into the range of work that GPs get involved with.  Within just the first week I followed GPs at Chelsea and Westminster working in the urgent care centre, in Hounslow working to replace inappropriate admissions to hospital with better support in the community and also travelled to Harrow to attend a Macmillan CCG meeting looking to better manage end of life care. I have always enjoyed my GP attachments but never before have I been exposed to the range of non-clinical work which many GPs get involved with.  This placement brought that side to the forefront - showcasing a diverse array of extra-clinical interests.  A good example was an evening with Dr Radha at Radio 1 for her programme "The Surgery" (inset) - not work I would traditionally associate with being a general  practitioner !  Similarly I was able to join Dr Easton plan a piece on Acromegaly for B...

At the start of this new academic year the team continues to be busy with many educational research projects across the range of  undergraduate primary care education. This includes collecting data from students and teachers to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of some new teaching initiatives including the year 3 ‘Medicine in the Community’ and year 5 ‘Integrated Clinical Apprenticeship’ pilots. We will report back on these findings in future newsletters, whilst some initial findings from these projects and others will be presented at the Society for Academic Primary Care conference at Madingley Hall in January. Other current research projects include looking at the use of augmented and virtual reality (AR & VR) in primary care teaching, teaching students about palliative care and researching their attitudes towards this, and also introducing students to health coaching and evaluating its use. If you would be interested in finding out more about any of these projects...

Year 5 Integrated Dermatology GP Course: Dr Emma Metters Year 5 Derm/Paeds GP Course Lead We have had a great start to the year with several groups of very enthusiastic students that have completed their rotations so far. The engagement in the departmental sessions has been brilliant and the students seem to be enjoying the breadth that the course covers.  I have been working with the hospital course lead, Dr James Shelley, and we have been looking at which topics get taught where in the course and there is a planned move towards teaching more ‘skin infections’ in primary care, which I think many of you are already doing as they are such common primary care problems.  We are also trying to rationalise the number of sign offs required for this attachment and we will be in touch when we have any updates. Year 5 GP-Paediatric Enrichment Week: This enrichment week is continuing to go well.  I have heard from several tutors regarding exciting new contacts and ...

                            Dr Ali Dhankot      Year 5 GPPHC Course lead The Year 5 GPPHC course continues to thrive and I am very excited to have taken over as course lead from my predecessor, Dr Neil Browning. There have been some important updates this year with the aim of reducing the number of assignments that need to be submitted, so please take a few moments to read the revised course guide.  A new DOPS, the 6-week baby check, has been introduced which we hope will give students a unique insight into this aspect of primary care. Feedback from our students shows much they value being able to consult independently and then discuss the cases with their tutor. They also enjoy the diversity and complexity of the patients they see in primary care, and often it is an eye opener for students, with many of their previous pre conceptions and ideas of what GPs do completely dispelled. Please keep...

The School of Public Health and its Opportunities Committee are pleased to announce the launch of a mentoring scheme. The School is committed to mentoring and recognises the important role it can play in supporting career advancement and increasing effectiveness and confidence. Our mentoring scheme is currently open to all staff (academic, research and professional/support). We are keen to support a variety of mentoring relationships: with senior staff or peers  short and long term relationships At whatever stage of your career we encourage you to think about whether having a mentor would be helpful to you. The School has run workshops for mentors over the summer and if you would like to receive mentoring then please complete the contact form at http://www.imperial.ac.uk/staff-development/development-options/talent-development/mentoring-at-imperial/publichealth/find-a-mentor-soph/ Requests will be kept confidential and the more information you can provide, the better we...