Month: June 2015

FoM Summer School keynote speakers

All Faculty of Medicine students and staff are warmly invited to our forthcoming Revolutions in Biomedicine Summer Lecture Series.

Each of the lectures will be followed by a drinks reception. There is no attendance fee for Faculty of Medicine students and staff, but we do ask that you register beforehand to help us plan catering.

If you have any questions about the lectures, please contact Jim Osborne (james.osborne@imperial.ac.uk).

 

Bloom

 

PROFESSOR SIR STEVE BLOOM
Interfering Factor to World Drug
Blockbuster – Can Imperial Manage?
Monday 29 June 2015, 17.00-18.00
G34, Sir Alexander Fleming Building


 

Kampmann

 

PROFESSOR BEATE KAMPMANN
Vaccines, Immunity and Global Child Health
Wednesday 1 July 2015, 17.30-18.30
G34, Sir Alexander Fleming Building


 

Darzi

 

PROFESSOR THE LORD ARA DARZI OF DENHAM PC KBE FRS
Innovation in Healthcare
Thursday 2 July 2015, 17.30-18.30
LT311, Huxley Building


 

Rankin

 

PROFESSOR SARA RANKIN
Story of a Paper: Regenerative Pharmacology – Teaching the Body to Repair Itself
Monday 13 July 2015,
17.30-18.30 (registration opens at 17.15)
G34, Sir Alexander Fleming Building

How buckets and digital gingerbread men are beating child malnutrition in Ghana

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that over 44 million children under five are either overweight or obese. At the same time in low and middle income countries one in five children are stunted due to poor diets. Malnutrition’s triple burden of stunting, micro-nutrient deficiency and obesity is a fact of life for many of the world’s children.

The good news is that every school day 368 million children sit down to a school meal.

This is important because we know from extensive research that school feeding is an effective way to fight malnutrition and improve life outcomes.

Governments in sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly looking at ways to scale up sustainable school feeding programmes that source their food from local farmers. Known as Home Grown School Feeding these programmes can potentially act as a ‘win-win’ for local communities by providing free nutritious school meals to children whilst at the same time providing a market for the produce of local farmers.

One such country is Ghana, which through its Ghana School Feeding Programme provides free school meals to over 1.7 million children every school day.

To meet this challenge, Imperial College London’s Partnership for Child Development (PCD) in partnership with Dubai Cares is working with the government to pioneer a new approach that is tackling child malnutrition head-on by linking together nutritious school meals with community focused nutrition and hygiene training.

Gingerbread and buckets

Creating nutritionally balanced school meals using local ingredients is not an easy thing to do. This is doubly true when the children relying on school meals are from communities where food insecurity is high and malnutrition and anaemia are common conditions.

Menu-plannerTo help schools and caterers to develop nutritious school meals, PCD has launched a state of the art, easy to use web-based school meals planner which allows users to create and fully cost menus using locally available ingredients. By linking local market prices to the ingredients, the tool displays the actual cost of each meal to the user. With this information, programme managers are able to create accurate and realistic school meals budgets.

The strength of the tool lies in its simplicity; you don’t need to be a nutritionist to create healthy nutritionally balanced meals. Gingerbread children graphics to show how much a meal is meeting the recommended daily intake of nutrients as identified by the WHO.

The tool is designed to work in conjunction with ‘handy measures’ – everyday measuring utensils like buckets and spoons which PCD has calibrated to international standard units so that caterers can accurately recreate nutritionally balanced meals without having to buy expensive kitchen scales and equipment.

One such caterer is Stella who has just been employed by the Government to cook for the 100 children that attend the New Mangonese Primary School on the outskirts of Accra, Ghana’s capital city, “I’ve learnt a lot in terms of how to prepare food hygienically and measure it out accurately so I’m cooking the right amounts”.

Healthy Homes

Good child nutrition and hygiene starts at home. To ensure this, the programme is promoting healthier lifestyles by training 400 community based health and nutrition champions to take the healthy living message deep into their local communities.

Through community meetings, the distribution of tens of thousands of health posters and radio jingles, community leaders and parents are being taught simple and practical ways to ensure that their children stay healthy and happy.

As mother of two, Mercy Awonor from Accra, can attest these health messages are getting through to parents and children alike, “I always knew the importance of cooking my children healthy meals but I wasn’t always sure what food was good and what was bad. Now with all the posters around the village and the health messages on the radio I know the food I should be cooking. My children also know what is good for them”.

PCD’s Executive Director Dr. Lesley Drake says, “By coupling high tech digital resources such as the meals planner with low tech community engagement, integrated school feeding and health programmes are vital if governments are to tackle the malnutrition crisis facing the next generation”.

To find out more and to plan your own school meal visit http://www.hgsf-global.org/

Follow HGSFglobal

Like us on Facebook Facebook/HomeGrownSchoolFeeding

 

Francis Peel
Partnership for Child Development
Imperial College London

WHO Collaborating Centre for Public Health Education and Training – June update

The Visit to Jabir Ibn Hayyan University in Najaf, Iraq

Professor Ali Mahmood Al-Shimmeri, the President of Jabir ibn Hayyan welcomed Professor Salman Rawaf, Director of P WHO Collaborating Centre for public Health Education and Training, Imperial College London on Wednesday 1st of April, 2015 at Jabir Ibn Hayyan University.

Jabir ibn Hayyan Medical University is one of the first specialized Universities in Najaf, Iraq. It encompasses all kinds of medical sciences. The Faculty of Medicine was established at the beginning of the academic year 2013-2014 involving 86 students who were centrally admitted, transferred or hosted from other universities. It is planned for the University to involve four faculties: Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy and Nursing in addition to a large university hospital and many other medical and research centres in various fields of medicine. The aim of the visit was to discuss the Hopeful Role of the Imperial College in Reviewing and Upgrading the Curriculum of the Faculty of Medicine to Meet the Highest Quality Standards. Professor Rawaf pledged to help and promised to exert his faithful efforts in order to achieve this mission.

 

First Who Ministerial Conference On Global Action Against Dementia

who dementiaOn 16 and 17 March 2015, WHO was hosting its first Ministerial Conference on Global Action Against Dementia. Ministers from around the world, as well as experts from the research, clinical and NGO communities, came together in Geneva for the first time to discuss the global problems posed by dementia.

The aim of the conference was to raise awareness of the socio-economic burden created by dementia, and to highlight that this burden can be reduced if the world collectively commits to placing dementia high on the global public health agenda.

The first day of the conference covered issues from research and drug regulation to care and human rights. On the second day, ministers discussed how to collectively move the global dementia agenda forward.

The conference was supported by the Department of Health of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The full meeting was webcast in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

 

Celebrating Primary Care Achievements: Seeing the person behind the patient

Imperial College London and the International College of Person-Centred Medicine are pleased to announce the 1st International Conference of Primary Care and Public Health to celebrate Primary Care and Public Health Achievements.

Baroness Ilora Finlay, Baroness Sheila Hollins and Sir Al Aynsley Green are amongst the World and UK leaders in Primary Care and Public Health who will be leading the conference.

The five central themes are: Primary Care in the 21st Century, Ageing and Ageism, Children and Adolescents, Integrated Care, and Public Health in Primary Care. Discussions will cut across the four major disciplines of education, training, research and clinical practice.

The conference will be held at Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, from 29 to 31 October 2015.

Tickets can be purchased through our website and abstracts can be submitted by July 1 by emailing g.greenfield@imperial.ac.uk

Register here

Please visit the conference website for more information

 

RCGP Global Health Family Medicine: Global Impact Conference London

RCGP Global Health Family Medicine Global Impact Conference London

Professor Salman Rawaf, Director of Who Collaborating Centre for Public Health Education and Training gave a presentation at the Conference organised by the Royal College of General Practitioners. The presentation: “A family physician for every person in the world: why we are failing globally” stressed that after thirty years of Alma Ata, the WHO World Health Report: Primary care – now more than ever, in 2008 re-focused the attention on the need of developing and strengthening primary care around the world. However, achievements since then are limited to patchy examples.

The talk also addressed the question why countries are reluctant or unable to develop their health system through primary care where every citizen has access to fully trained doctors who take care of health and healthcare needs. The number of trained family physicians needed in one of the WHO regions is projected to illustrate the magnitude of the tasks involved in developing primary care services that achieve the goal of universal health coverage. Guidance and suggestions for policy and decision-makers, health professionals, and civil society institutions will be offered, with the aim of maintaining and improving health to the highest of standards through effective primary care services.

 

Palestinian Family Medicine Visit to UK

The Department of Primary Care and Public Health (PCPH) at Imperial College London recently hosted a Palestinian Family Medicine delegation during their 4-day visit to the UK (4-8th March 2015). The visit was organised by the International Development of Family Medicine in Palestine (IDFMP), which is a collaborative initiative by UK GP academics. The aim of the visit was to orientate delegates to UK general practice and participate in the first RCGP Global Health ‘Family medicine: global impact’ conference in order to foster the development of a shared vision of family medicine training in Palestine. The delegates met Professor Salman Rawaf, Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Public Health Education and Training and there was lively discussion about shaping and developing family medicine in Palestine.

               

WHO CC work showcase at the Urology department educational seminar, 13 May 2015

At the request of Dr Alexandra Zachou — consultant urologist Imperial College Trust, Dr Sondus Hassounah, delivered a presentation at the Urology Department afternoon educational seminar showcasing the work the WHO CC undertakes. The presentation provided a brief overview of how the WHO CC was established and highlighted some of the projects the centre has been involved in since its designation by the WHO, with the support of the British Government, in 2007. The request to deliver this session stemmed from the urology departments’ interest in global health work and keenness to expose their faculty, staff and students to the broad application of public health and health system strengthening in a global context.

 

Systematic Literature Review Course

Systematic Literature Review Course

On Thursday 30th April 2015, our PhD students and fellows attended a one-day course on Systematic Reviews, given by Dr Holger Kunz. Through highly interactive and practical sessions, they learnt about why systematic literature reviews are so important in Public Health, how to develop a research question and a protocol, and the steps in conducting a systematic review – from literature search to selection of studies, quality appraisal, data extraction, meta-analysis and textual synthesis.

 

MPH student presentation at the Chevening Conference

Chevening ConferenceWhat is the link between Ebola outbreaks and Health Systems?

This is a question which needs to be asked in order to understand how this virus came to find its way around the globe in a matter of months. This topic must be scrutinised and assessed to help draft future recommendations for bridging current gaps in the health systems of vulnerable countries and eliminate the emergence of future outbreaks.

Dr. Haitham Shoman, who is studying his Master’s in Public Health at Imperial College London, prepared a poster on this subject and presented an overview at the Chevening Conference in Durham University on Diplomacy in the 21st Century that took place in Durham on the April 17th 2015. This was a fantastic opportunity to present such a cutting edge topic and educate high profile delegates, particularly those from non-medical backgrounds. His presentation drew a great deal of interest and questions from different participants. Support was given from Imperial College WHO CC. The dissertation he will be carrying out this summer, to be supervised by Professor Salman Rawaf, is centred on finding the link and grasping the roots of the problem, assessing information from a wide range of sources and reaching conclusions on how to mitigate such problems. A particular sense of urgency surrounds the spread of such diseases due to their potential to perpetuate poor health, poverty and inequality in some of the world’s most deprived countries. Living in the 21st century with globalisation and increased connectivity, countries with weak health systems should not be left behind as health is a fundamental human right and not exclusive to those living in the developed world. Strong health systems need to be established with proper communication and partnerships to avoid the progress of Ebola and avoid the emergence of new outbreaks.

 

Ela Augustyniak
WHO Collaborating Centre

NIHR Clinical Research Network helps to recruit first global patient in surgical research study

From L-R: Mr Naim Fakih, Donna McLean, Fatima Akbar, Mr Ahmed Ahmed, and Mr Christos Tsiornis
From L-R: Mr Naim Fakih, Donna McLean, Fatima Akbar, Mr Ahmed Ahmed, and Mr Christos Tsiornis

The NIHR Clinical Research Network, which supports researchers and clinicians across Imperial College and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, have helped recruit the first global patient into a surgical study. The trial, which is being conducted by Mr Ahmed Ahmed, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Bariatric Surgery, will compare types of surgical stapler, to investigate whether a newer device will be more efficient and reduce complications for patients.

For more information on the Clinical Research Network and how they can help you, visit their website, follow them at @nihrcrn_nwldn or email kate.wighton@nihr.ac.uk.

Kate Wighton
Communications Manager
NIHR Clinical Research Network (North West London)

Healthy volunteers of West African descent sought for Imperial sponsored study

Heart_drawings_3_by_PJKWe are looking for healthy volunteers of West African descent to take part in an Imperial sponsored study called ‘Genetic Studies of the Heart and Circulation’, which aims to develop an atlas of the human heart to help scientists to determine the effect of different DNA and genes on heart shape and function. The research has been given ethical approval by the Research Ethics Committee (approval reference number 09/H0707/69).

Volunteers must be:

  • registered with a UK GP
  • have no heart-related health problems
  • be between the ages of 18 and 80

The study will involve some general lifestyle questions; height, weight and simple heart test function measurements; a three dimensional heart scan; and a blood (or saliva) sample. The appointment may take up to 90 minutes, and are held at Hammersmith Hospital, Du Cane Road, W12.

All participants will be reimbursed £25 and will receive a free CD of their scan.

For more information email: heart@imperial.nhs.uk

Laura Monje Garcia
Research Nurse, Cardiology
Robert Steiner MRI Unit
Hammersmith Hospital

Central ‘Faculty of Medicine’ webpages – looking a little bit different!

webpageAs you may well have noticed by now, the central ‘Faculty of Medicine’ website has moved into Imperial College’s new website content management system (CMS). These pages (the majority of pages under www.imperial.ac.uk/medicine)  have been migrated and refreshed to match the College’s new look and to deliver a better user experience for visitors to the site – no matter what device they may be using: mobile, tablet or desktop computer. To prepare for this transfer a team of editors in the Faculty have worked hard to review and recreate their existing pages into the new format, and we’d like to thank them for all their hard work.

This is the first phase of a programme of transfer for the many sites which are related to the Faculty of Medicine.  Sites will need to be moved from our current Faculty system (an older, CMS which is unique to our Faculty) into the College’s new, mobile-friendly system.  For more detail about future transfers, please see the ‘what’s next?’ section below.

What to expect from the new pages.

Now the new pages have gone live you’ll notice that existing urls and links to central Faculty information held on these pages have changed.  We’ve worked to keep a number of our most important url links going to their direct equivalent – but with such a large website move, it’s inevitable that some existing links to pages may no longer work as you expected. If the old link you are used to using has changed, you’ll either be redirected to the appropriate general area of the new site, or be taken to a ‘404’ page which will attempt to locate a relevant page in the new site.  Alternatively you can use the College search box which appears at the top of every web page.

We want your feedback.

We are very interested to hear your experiences of using the new site as you get to know it during the first few months after launch.  In particular we’d very much value your opinion of the new ‘For FoM staff’ section (we aim to continually improve this as a resource to complement the College level pages – and need your input to do that!).

What’s next?

The next stage of the project will be to rollout a programme of activity to work with site owners to help them migrate content from their departmental, unit or research group pages into the new system and designs. This activity will take a year to complete, and will be undertaken as a phased roll-out which will be planned with each of the Departments.  If you are a Faculty CMS site owner we will therefore be contacting you over the coming months to discuss your training needs and help you plan the transfer of your pages into the new system.


For more information about the College-wide web project, please visit:
http://www.imperial.ac.uk/staff/tools-and-reference/web-guide/projects/web-redesign/

For information on how to prepare your web pages for the new system please visit: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/staff/tools-and-reference/web-guide/projects/web-redesign/guidance/


Desmond Samuel

Digital Communications and Marketing Strategy Manager
Faculty of Medicine