S&C Staff Blog

The Surgery & Cancer Mentoring scheme has been launched and is now open to all academic, research and support staff. If you are interested in having a mentor please use the contact form provided on the website. It is also a good idea to attend a workshop to learn what the scheme can offer you and what to expect from your mentoring relationship.

Next workshop – The next available mentoring workshop is running on Tuesday 24th March at South Kensington from 10 –1pm  – please email k.johnson@imperial.ac.uk if you would like to book a place. Workshops are for both potential mentors and mentees and are run by Fiona Richmond from the Learning and Development Centre. The sessions cover starting and ending the mentoring relationship, tools to use within the sessions, and managing boundaries. The workshops are participatory and designed to help people new to mentorship get started and for those who have mentoring experience to refresh their thinking.

We are developing a mentoring pool but still need more participants in order to meet demand and offer a wider range of experience. Not only is mentoring a vital part of a sustainable collegiate environment, it is also a thoroughly rewarding experience. Our scheme is running across all grades and job families but we have a particular need for more Academic and Clinical Academic staff at the moment. We would encourage anyone considering becoming a mentor to come along to a workshop and find out more with no obligation. There is plenty of support on hand for mentors including regular ‘debrief’ sessions.

The workshops are aimed at both potential mentors and mentees and are being held on the following dates:

Tuesday 24th March                       10 –1pm at South Kensington
Thursday 16^th April                         1-4pm at Hammersmith
Wednesday 20^th May                     10-1pm at St Mary’s

For more information about our Department of Surgery and Cancer scheme, mentoring in general, or to sign up for mentoring please visit the Surgery & Cancer mentor pages.

If you have any questions then please contact Kathryn Johnson (k.johnson@imperial.ac.uk)

Read Mentoring Scheme now open! in full

A global centre for excellence in innovation and design in healthcare delivery was formally opened at St Mary’s last week by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.

Read the full story on the College website here.

Read HRH The Prince of Wales opens the Surgical Innovation Centre in full

You are all invited to a lecture hosted by Professor Jeremy Nicholson on Wednesday 11th of February 2015 from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM at South Kensington campus.

The presentation will be given by Professor Shaw, a pioneer in the field of computational arts, and Dean of the School of Creative Media at City University in Hong Kong, and will examine new paradigms for developing embodied museum experiences, based on the practices of New Media Art.

The talk will explore innovative interactive applications and fully immersive visualization systems that were jointly developed by Professor Jeffrey Shaw (City University Hong Kong) and Professor Sarah Kenderdine (University of NSW, Sydney).

More information and registration details can be found here.

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception in the Foyer of the Sir Alexander Fleming Building.

Read The Age of Experience: Professor Jeffrey Shaw in full

A study by one of Surgery & Cancer’s Adjunct Professors, Prof Tom Bourne has been looking into how complaints procedures faced by doctors risk harming patients.

Doctors who go through complaints procedures experience high rates of serious depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts, according to a new study.

Four out of five doctors also reported changing the way they treat their patients as a result of either complaints against themselves, or observing a colleague go through a complaints process.

The authors of the research say that by causing psychological ill health and encouraging defensive practice, the processes designed to hold doctors to account are having negative consequences for patients.

The findings come from a survey of 7,926 doctors published in BMJ Open. Read complete story here.

Read Complaints procedures faced by doctors risk harming patients, study suggests in full

Catch up on everything happening within the Institute of Global Health Innovation in their quarterly new bulletin, which highlights the latest events and activities at the IGHI.

• New HELIX Centre design studio at St Mary’s Hospital
• Student challenge competition: Enter the dragons den
• Ebola explained
• London Health commission report

Read News from the Institute of Global Health Innovation in full

Prof Naomi Chayen gave an outreach lecture on the 8th January to a medical ethics group in North London, focusing on the research currently taking place within Computation and Systems Medicine, as well as ethical issues concerning pure research, rather than actual medical issues.

Surgery & Cancer want to try and capture all the outreach work going on in the Department, so if anyone has any news they want to share then please email Kathryn Johnson. 

Read Prof Naomi Chayen gives outreach lecture in full

Imperial College Innovation Forum Launch Event
Big Data: The future of Healthcare Innovation?

Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data — so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. Big Data has been hailed to be the frontier for innovation, competition and productivity by leading firms around the world.

Join us at the Launch Event of Imperial College Innovation Forum where we have the experts at the forefront of Big Data discuss their thoughts and vision for Big Data and its role in healthcare innovation.

Date: Wednesday 28th January 2015
Time: 6.30 for 7pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre G16, SAF Building, South Kensington Campus, Imperial College London

Our speakers on the day are:

• Professor Paul Matthews, OBE- Head of Division of Brain Sciences in the Department of Medicine of Imperial College London
• Professor Jeremy Nicholson- Head of Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London
• Dr Rupert Dunbar-Rees- CEO and Founder of Outcomes Based Healthcare

  The panel discussion will be followed by networking and drinks reception. This event is free to attend.
  Get your tickets at http://www.eventbrite.com/e/big-data-the-future-of-healthcare-innovation-tickets-15174587600?aff=es2&rank=8

Best wishes,
ICIF team

Read Big Data: The future of Healthcare Innovation? in full

Calling all creative problem solvers… 

Could your innovative ideas make a difference in our hospitals?

At Imperial College Healthcare we are continuously looking for new and better ways to improve patient experience. As a result we have launched a series of investigative 2-day events called Imperial Quality Improvement Sprints. For more information see the website.

Interested in taking part?

Whether you are an engineer, artist, musician, entrepreneur, or an organisation looking for a challenging and rewarding new experience for your staff, come and help us revolutionise healthcare at one of the events below:

Monday 2nd to Tuesday 3rd February, all day, W12 Conference Centre, Hammersmith Hospital
Monday 16th to Tuesday 17th March, all day, W12 Conference Centre Hammersmith Hospital

Please email IQISprints@imperial.nhs.uk or call 020 331 25443.

Further details are on the website.

Read Imperial Quality Improvement Sprints organised by Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust in full

A new trial has been launched by Prof Julian Teare and his team, to investigate the effectiveness of a tube-like device inserted into the small intestine to treat type 2 diabetes. The study is now open for participants and you can read more about it on the Imperial news story or on the EndoBarrier website.

Read New trial to evaluate intestine implant to treat obesity related type 2 diabetes in full

Prof Alison McGregor is now part of a new exhibition at the Science Museum called “Engineer Your Future”, which was opened by HRH The Prince of Wales on Tuesday.

The exhibition is aimed at 11-15 year olds and focuses on getting more children interested in engineering, through a variety of objects and interactive games, one of which features Prof McGregor.

The Engineer Your Future exhibition is free to visit and runs for the next three years at the Science Museum so go have a look.

Read Prof McGregor on exhibition at the Science Museum in full

Congratulations to Professor Nagy Habib who has just been elected by the board of the French Academy of Surgery as an “Honor Foreign Member”

Prof Habib will receive his medal and diploma from the President on the Annual Solemn meeting of the Academy on Wednesday January 21st 2015 in Paris.

Read Congratulations to Prof Habib in full

The Athena SWAN award ceremony took place in November at Robinson College, University of Cambridge where Julia Anderson and Kate Hardy went along to collect Surgery & Cancer’s bronze award, presented by Prof Dame Julia Higgins.

It was an Imperial day with the Provost James Stirling and Dot Griffiths in attendance to support all the Imperial Departments receiving awards, including the Institute of Clinical Sciences and MRC Clinical Sciences Centre getting their bronze award and the Department of Chemical Engineering and National Heart and Lung institute getting their silver renewals.

Currently work is underway in the Department preparing for our silver application in November 2015, with our new mentoring scheme launching in the new year. For more information on this please take a look at our Athena SWAN page.

Read Athena SWAN Award Ceremony in full

Congratulations to Dr Daqing Ma (Reader and Head of Anaesthesia Research of the Section of Anaesthetics, Pain Medicine & Intensive Care) who has been elected as Macintosh Professor for a period of 12 months by the Royal College of Anaesthetists as of Nov 2014.

Read Dr Daqing Ma becomes RCoA Macintosh Professor in full

On the 31st October, the Division of Computational Systems Medicine (CSM), invited 26 students from IntoUniveristy London Brixton branch for an outreach event.

The students, aged between 14 and 17, took part in various activities, from Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy, comparing characteristic spectra of food products and urinary profiles of healthy and diseased individuals, to a laboratory tour, a disease biomarker workshop and a short-course on microbial pathogens, such as Ebola and HIV.

The CSM outreach team, headed by Professor Nigel Gooderham, was organised by academics at various stages of their careers (PhD students, postdocs and lecturers), who subsequently talked about their current roles, as well as academic life at Imperial College and requirements to get into university initially.

Overall, the CMS team enjoyed reaching out and engaging with the students, all of who gave positive feedback, and wishes them all the very best for their future careers.

Read CSM Outreach Activity in full

Calibre Programme
The Calibre Programme is running again in 2015! The Calibre Programme is a focussed development programme for disabled staff in Higher Education and beyond, the programme is aimed at individuals who seek to gain a greater understanding of their role in the work place. It is suitable for academics, researchers, technicians, professional and support staff from higher education and beyond.

Declaration of Interest should be made by 12pm on the 5th of January 2015, find out more here.

Disability Awareness Month
There are a series of events for the Disability Awareness Month running in November and December:

• 26th November—Traveling Tenderly – A difficult journey from Tinteskin to Imperial – Register Here (A personal story of struggles and victories with depression addiction and self-harming & living with a visual impairment)
• 1st December—Keynote Lecture—HIV in 2015: On the edge of a revolution—Register Here (World Aids Day Panel Discussion – A talk looking into the current state of the epidemic, prevention and treatment)
• 3rd & 5th December – MHFA Two Day training Course—Register Here (The MHFA standard course teaches techniques to provide help to someone (staff or students) experiencing a mental health problem before professional help is obtained.)

To get involved and for more information follow the link

Read Equality, Diversity and Disability Information in full

The Human Anatomy Unit has recently been the grateful recipient of an Anatomage Virtual Dissection Table, kindly donated by Prof Ara Darzi.

The table offers both gross full body, male and female anatomy as well as numerous pathological examples derived from real patient data. The table offers a new and exciting learning resource within the unit and is available to both staff and students.

The Anatomage Table is location in the Pathology Museum 11^th floor Charing Cross Hospital Campus.

Read Virtual Dissection Table Donated to the Human Anatomy Unit in full