Tag: Medical student

Imperial College medical student receives The Diana Award

Haroop BolaFinal year medical student, Harroop Bola, and Founding Chair of the British Indian Medical Association, which received the Diana Award last year, shares how the association fosters mentorship, education, and leadership for medical professionals from Widening Participation backgrounds. He highlights BIMA’s impactful initiatives, from academic workshops to community support, inspiring the next generation of changemakers in the NHS and global healthcare. 

I am delighted to share that my work with the British Indian Medical Association has been honoured with the Diana Award 2024- the highest accolade a young person can achieve for social action or humanitarian efforts. Established in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, the award is given out by the charity of the same name and has the support of both her sons, HRH The Prince of Wales and Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex. 

Joining Imperial College London’s School of Medicine as a first-generation university student without established connections in medicine was an intimidating journey. While access to medical school has improved through widening participation initiatives, the systemic challenges remain; opportunities within medicine often favour those with access to high-quality mentorship. With approximately one-third of medical students coming from medical families and competition for training posts increasing annually, mentorship has become an invaluable asset. For individuals like me, navigating the complexities of a medical career and building a competitive portfolio without prior insight into the profession can feel overwhelming.  

Harroop Bola delivering a speech during the 3rd Annual BIMA Conference at Imperial College London
Figure 1: Harroop Bola delivering a speech during the 3rd Annual BIMA Conference at Imperial College London

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as I transitioned from my first to second year of medical school, I joined forces with Dr Amar Rai and Virensinh Rathod to establish the British Indian Medical Association (BIMA). Our vision was simple yet powerful: to foster a sense of community within the medical field and leverage collective support to address gaps in education, mentorship, and cultural identity. 

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‘It can make a massive difference’: How to be a trans ally

Every student deserves to be treated with dignity, respect and fairness at University. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case for transgender students. So, how can you step up and be an authentic ally for the transgender student community? Medical student, Elliot, discusses all things allyship.

Treating people with respect and dignity is the utmost priority for many people at university, however meeting someone who is transgender can be confusing and new for a lot of people. With ever changing laws, media output and opinion, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and swept up when trying to care about those around you. I have compiled the some tips for supporting the trans (non-cis) people in your life, so that you know where to start. 

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Advancing diversity in the healthcare workforce

Brian Wang

When Imperial alumnus Dr Brian Wang founded In2MedSchool, he had one aim: to break down the barriers preventing students from disadvantaged backgrounds pursuing medicine. Brian shares his motivations for supporting the next generation of medics.

In the summer of 2022, before my final year of medical school, I had the opportunity to support the national efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic at Imperial College Healthcare Trust NHS hospitals. My experiences as a medical student and volunteer during this time kick-started my passion for advocating diversity within the healthcare workforce. Levelling the playing field and ensuring the diversity and representation of medical staff—in my mind at least—seems beneficial to the healthcare workforce and the communities that our healthcare system supports.

Today I am the founder of In2MedSchool, a charity that provides support for disadvantaged children with ambitions to study Medicine and healthcare-related degrees at university.

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Inspirational leadership matters: supporting the next generation of clinical academics

Dr Maddalena Ardissino

This festive period, Three Wise Women from the Faculty of Medicine will be giving us the gift of wisdom.

The journey to becoming a clinical academic can be long and arduous, with many obstacles. Dr Maddalena Ardissino, from the National Heart and Lung Institute, reflects on her own experiences as a trainee and explains why mentorship is key to supporting the growth and development of young, aspiring clinical academics.

Almost exactly five years ago, I stood amongst a crowd of young academics at a poster session at the Intensive Care Society’s annual conference, experiencing a feeling of anxiety I’ve never known before or since. I was in my fifth year of medical school and standing in front of a group of excellent researchers who were about to listen to me give my first scientific presentation. It seemed unthinkable to me, at the time, to think that they might have the slightest interest in what I had to say.

Since then, my journey through clinical and academic training has been what I can only describe as an adventure. I quickly realised that there isn’t a single defined path for clinical academics, with each individual moulding a slightly different journey. When I look around at my fellow clinical academics at the National Heart and Lung Institute, however, there is one key feature that we all share: enthusiasm. And behind this feature there is one single, common theme: the support of a truly inspirational mentor.

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Balancing academics and athletics as a student-athlete

Joaquin Bello

In August 2022, fifth-year Medical student, Joaquin Bello, and his twin brother, Javier Bello, made history as England’s first-ever Commonwealth Games beach volleyball medallists. Joaquin reflects on his journey to becoming a professional volleyball player, and the challenges of juggling academic studies with sports stardom.

This summer I won a bronze medal at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, the culmination of many years of hard work whilst balancing my studies with training. While I hope my dual-career is far from over, I wanted to reflect on my journey so far and the lessons that I have learnt along the way.

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Medicine in the Mountains

In March 2022, a group of medical students undertook a research expedition to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Georgia Leggett, reflects on her experience summiting Mount Toubkal and the challenges that come with conducting research in such a remote environment.

Before starting at Imperial, I was fortunate enough to co-lead a couple of charity projects in Brazil, where my varied experiences sparked my interest in health care provision in remote and extreme environments. Applying for the Remote Medicine BSc was an obvious choice, as it provided the opportunity to integrate my love of travel and adventure into my medical degree, and in March 2022, seven other students and I had the opportunity to carry out a research expedition to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco as part of our BSc projects.

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Speaking authentically within higher education

How can we foster a sense of authenticity within ethnically minoritised students? Dr Zoe Moula, Teaching Fellow at the School of Public Health, aims to raise awareness of how we can promote a more inclusive educational environment and understand the barriers which can affect a student’s sense of authenticity within higher education.

The underrepresentation of ethnically minoritised students at university, and even more so in medicine, often results in identity suppression in order to ‘fit in’. Yet, this can lead to increased anxiety, and interferes with a student’s ability to succeed academically and professionally.  Societal, structural and institutional factors, such as racism, discrimination and socioeconomic inequalities may all play a part into why a student may not be able to express their true self.  It is therefore crucial that any effort to promote Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) must also protect and promote a student’s sense of authenticity. (more…)

The value of conversation: discussing with others exposed me to new challenges

A group of students sitting around a table talking and reading

Cate Goldwater Breheny, undergraduate student at the School of Medicine, reflects on their first MEdIC Masterclass and the discussions sparked around diversity and inclusivity.

When I first suggested signing up to medical education masterclasses over the summer, people were skeptical. After a long year of university, wouldn’t it be better to have some time off? Why medical education over a paying job or maybe a scientific internship?

And I confess, I was perhaps a little skeptical too. Yet, it only took five minutes to sign up, and then I had the rest of term to worry about. As it turned out, that was five minutes incredibly well spent.

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Masked: uncovering an unseen issue

For Imperial’s Sustainability Week, medical student Urvi highlights the environmental impact of abandoned face masks.

This pandemic has unexpectedly impacted the entire world in more ways than one. Despite a whole year having passed in what feels like the blink of an eye, so many historic moments have occurred over the past year, ranging from huge political changes to unrest and activism. It’s given us a lot to reflect on and I know that I personally have realised how there is so much we can do to strive to make this world a better place.

Other than grocery shopping, leaving my house for a walk is unfortunately the only kind of outing I’ve had these days. It dawned upon me how wrongly accustomed I had become to seeing masks and gloves littered and trodden into the pavement and grass near where I lived. I don’t remember there being so much litter in my neighbourhood before. I couldn’t help but think that if this is the case in our cities and towns, imagine how many masks and gloves would be littering our beaches and rivers, let alone our oceans…

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Researching remote medicine from our own homes

Student group pictured on a field trip to the Brecon Beacons pre-Covid-19

Our BSc in Remote Medicine for intercalating medical students focuses on exploring medicine in remote and low-resource environments.

Normally students would have an opportunity to travel to the Nepali Himalayas to carry out a research project. With the expedition cancelled due to Covid-19, four remote medicine students discuss how they adapted their research projects.

Carmen

For my original research project, I chose to investigate sleep during an expedition to high altitude. Previous research has shown that human error is the leading cause of mountaineering accidents and at sea-level, sleep deprivation increases the risk of accidents due to human error. Therefore, my aim was to determine the contribution of the mountaineering environment to poor sleep and impaired cognitive performance on an expedition to altitude – using a reaction time application as a surrogate marker for cognitive function. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 the planned expedition to Nepal was cancelled and so I devised a pilot study to test the reaction time application I wanted to use at altitude remotely with a small group of participants simulating a night slept at altitude in their own homes. (more…)