The European Society of Surgical Oncology is currently running a course on diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours.
The programme aims to give participants an overview on diagnosis and treatment of this condition to young and more senior surgeons who want to develop a specific knowledge on this topic. Adequate evidence-based information will be provided and few controversial topics will be discussed.
More information on the programme can be found here.
Dr James Flanagan – Senior Lecturer in the Division of Cancer has been involved in research looking into identifying a new biomarker in the blood that could help identify more women at a high risk of breast cancer.
In a prospective study, researchers from Imperial College London and the Human Genetics Foundation (HuGeF) in Torino, Italy, have concluded that DNA methylation levels in blood cells are associated with breast cancer risk, and could be used to identify women at high risk of developing the disease.
The Centre for Patient Safety and Service Quality celebrated the the success of the My Medication Passport with demand exceeding 100 000 people. The My Medication Passport is a small, easy-to-read, user-friendly booklet or app designed for patients to hold a record of their medication.
Experts gathered to discuss the benefits and the barriers to the sharing of NHS patient data.
Over 100 delegates gathered at the Royal Geographical Society last Thursday for the Centre for Health Policy’s Sowerby eHealth Symposium.
This year Surgery and Cancer have won 50% of the Faculty Scholarships at the Dean’s Master’s Scholarships. As a Department we have managed to get 5/10 scholarships (3 going to Biomedical Research MRes and 2 to Cancer Biology MRes).
Congratulations to Nigel Gooderham, Tim Ebbles, Olivier Pardo and Ernesto Yague.
Congratulations go to Mr Christopher Lattimer who for the second time has won 2nd Prize at the 16th Annual Meeting of the European Venous Forum, which took place from the 2nd-4th July 2015 in St. Petersburg, Russia, attracting over 800 delegates from all over the world.
The following presentation entitled: Increasing thigh compression pressure correlates with a reduction in the venous drainage index of air plethysmography. (CR Lattimer, S Doucet, E Kalodiki, M Azzam, V Ibegbuna, G Geroulakos) was from the Josef Pflug Vascular Laboratory, Ealing Hospital & Imperial College and was given at the event.
The photo depicts Mr Christopher Lattimer (right) receiving the award on behalf of his team from the Josef Pflug Vascular Laboratory, Imperial College (Stephen Doucet, Evi Kalodiki, Mustapha Azzam & George Geroulakos) who is shaking hands with the Chairman Professor Andrew Nicolaides (left) with the EVF President Professor Evgeny Shaydakov from St Petersburg in the centre.
This highly competitive award has provided a grant to the sum of £1,500 for Mr Lattimer to present his team’s work on venous drainage at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Venous Forum held in Orlando, Florida, Feb 23-26. This is acknowledged to be the most prestigious venous meeting globally.
It is anticipated that the venous drainage index (VDI) of air-plethysmography will provide a reliable measurement of venous outflow obstruction in patients evaluated for venous stenting. This may lead on to a screening test which can be used in a clinical setting to monitor the success of venous stents and prevent invasive diagnostic investigations in patients with suspected venous obstruction.
Last week the Postdoc Development Centre hosted the PDC Reps Award Dinner to celebrate the amazing achievements of the PDC Reps Network and to give the first PDC Reps Award, which was presented by the Provost, Prof James Stirling.
There was a huge interest across the College in the PDC Reps Award, with 49 individuals nominating their departmental Reps due to the significant contributions they have made to their department. In total this resulted in 15 Reps being put forward for consideration for the award.
All of the nominations were of a very high quality. Taking into account the number of nominations and the comments made on the form, 5 Reps were taken forward as finalists. Each of these individuals has excelled in their role as departmental Reps and there is evidence that there is a real cultural change within their department as a result of their work. In recognition of the extraordinary work that the finalists have done they each received a £50 John Lewis Voucher with the winner receiving £500 toward a conference or workshop of their choice.
We are proud to report that Kirsty Flower, our Postdoc Rep for the IRDB was nominated for this award. This was a huge achievement so congratulations go to Kirsty for the nomination as a recognition of all the work she has carried out in the Department, especially for her involvement with the Athena SWAN Academic Opportunities Committee.
Interesting article in the Guardian on the challenges of being a female surgeon:
One challenge of being a female surgeon is patients presuming I’m a secretary:
Congratulations to Liz Elvidge Head of the Postdoc Development Centre who this year won the Julia Higgins Medal, in recognition of her work with female postdocs and early career academics.
Liz has been sharing her extensive expert knowledge with the Department through her continued involvement in our Athena SWAN Academic Opportunities Committee. Working towards finding the best ways we can support the Departments postdoc community.
Research projects aimed at addressing issues such as heart disease in babies and head injuries have been showcased at a special event. Judges selected six researchers at Imperial who are currently undertaking clinical academic training to present their projects as finalists at a conference organised by the Clinical Academic Training Office (CATO), a network established to provide training for clinical staff, and allied healthcare professionals at Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
Dr Rita De Campos Pires Santos E Sousa, Clinical Research Training Fellow (in Surgery and Cancer), for a study that examines how brain damage develops following a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and investigates potential drug treatments such as xenon, a noble gas and general anaesthetic, to tackle this. The latest findings showed for the first time in an animal model that xenon reduces brain injury and improves neurological outcomes in the short and long term. According to the research team, xenon could be used to treat TBI patients in the future.
Clinical research fellow Mr Matthew Prime features in this weeks Economist magazine on an article entitled “Doctorpreneurs”, which focuses on how many bright inventions come out of the NHS but too few are exploited.
Although in theory the NHS is keen to exploit innovation, in practice the path is often blocked. One problem is that there is no clear process for pitching an idea: doctors who do must tout their wares to each hospital, and sometimes each hospital department. One inventor, an orthopaedic surgeon called Matthew Prime, came up with a digital database for accident and emergency patient notes which, he says, caused a 50% drop in complaints and lowered surgical waiting times. Despite this success, only four other hospitals took it up. Others continue to write each patient’s notes out five times, on various whiteboards and notepads, as they come in.
You are invited to the 3rd Annual Centre for Patient Safety and Service Quality Symposium on the 9th September 2015, organised by NIHR Imperial Patient Safety Translational Research Centre.
We are delighted to announce that the Call for Abstracts is now open!
Please click on the image to expand the flyer detailing the abstract submission process.
Congratulations to three members of the Department who have all recently won prizes:
In the run up to the Sowerby Symposium on 16th July, Professor Lord Ara Darzi discusses the benefits & barriers to sharing patient data.
The symposium will explore the topic of benefits to patients from data sharing, as told by patients themselves and those who have been working to join up information held by individual organisations across the NHS.
More details and how to register can be found on the Sowerby eHealth Symposium webpage.
Thousands of the most severely disabled people in England face an uncertain future as a specialist government fund closes. The Independent Living Fund will now be managed by local councils, to distribute as they see fit.
Cancer Research Nurse Laura Woodley features in the BBC news story, speaking about the implications of this change in legislation.