The department has had some significant successes in the latter half of 2012. Two major NIHR applications on which members of the department were co-investigators were successful – the NIHR Patient Safety Translational Research Centre and the NIHR Research Design Service. Undergraduate primary care teaching continues to progress well and is now developing an educational research programme, as well as building international links. The new Imperial GP Specialty Training Scheme has started and offers great opportunities for linking postgraduate general practice training with undergraduate education in primary care. We had good recruitment to the Master of Public Health Programme (MPH), with five scholarships being awarded to students starting the course in October 2010. Future challenges for the department will include engaging with the new NHS bodies that take over from primary care trusts in April 2013 and building links with public health departments in local authorities.

On Friday, 14 September 2012, Professor Azeem Majeed and Professor

Salman Rawaf hosted the launch of the much anticipated publication,

Public Health in the Arab World (Cambridge University Press). Labelled the

largest international scholarship collaboration on the subject to date, the

event took place at the South Kensington campus and was attended by

faculty members, interested researchers and members of the general

public. Presented by Dr Samer Jabbour, lead editor and book project

coordinator, and Dr Sameen Siddiqi, one of the contributors and Director

of Division of Health Systems Development at the World Health

Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean, as

well as Professor Salman Rawaf, author of two chapters, the book raises

controversial questions and engaged the participating audience in lively

debate, reflecting the diversity of topics it touches on, and the array of

public health concepts, frameworks and paradigms it critiques. The book

can be found at the ICL library.

News in brief... The NIHR Research Design Service (RDS) grant has been renewed for a further five years from October 2013. RDS provides statistical and methodological advice for those preparing applied health research proposals for peer-reviewed funding competitions.

We welcome Lucas Cusamano from Fordham University, USA and Elizabeth Allen from the College of William and Mary, USA. These two MPH students received Rector’s Scholarship awards for 2012-13. This is an excellent result as only three scholarships were made available to the Faculty of Medicine.

Additionally, two incoming MPH students were awarded Fulbright Scholarships. Elizabeth Allen BSc. College of William and Mary and Sarah Rosenberg-Wohl. BA Harvard University.

Lina Quttub, BSc, was awarded a prestigious Chevening Scholarship. She will be joining our MPH programme.

The department has received two NIHR In-Practice Fellowships which run for 2 years and start in October 2012. The recipients are Dr Fozia Hamid and Dr Sinan Mir, who joined the department on 1 October 2012.

Congratulations to Dr Sonia Saxena and Dr Josip Car. Both were nominated in Pulse’s annual poll of Top 50 GPs. The poll seeks to name those GPs who are considered to be amongst the most influential GPs in the profession, the NHS and Government policy.

June 2012

October 2012

Michelle van Velthoven has received a prestigious Santander Mobility Award to assist her in an overseas research trip to China. Her research looks at using mobile phone text messaging to collect data on childhood pneumonia in Hebei Province. The study will be undertaken in collaboration with researchers of the Capital Institute of Paediatrics, Beijing. Dr Josip Car from the Global eHealth Unit and Dr Jacqueline Leslie from the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative based in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, have been awarded funding by the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) to conduct a systematic review entitled ‘What are the effects of behaviour change communications strategies embedded in social marketing programs on health behaviours and related health and welfare outcomes?’ Lambert Felix, RA in eHealth, will be the main researcher conducting the review. 3ie is dedicated to improving development outcomes through better use of evidence from quality impact evaluations.

Professor David Blane gave the keynote address on Health inequalities over the life course at the European Society of Health and Medical Sociology biennial conference in Hannover, on 30 August 2012. In September, Professor Blane co-organised and contributed to the second Antwerp Summer School on Longitudinal and life course research: demography, epidemiology and sociology traditions, with sponsorship from ICLS, Society for Longitudinal and Life Course Studies, European Association for Population Studies and Centre for Longitudinal & Life Course Research (University of Antwerp).

The ICLS Unit will be moving to University College London from 1 January 2013. We wish them every success in their new home and we are sure they will continue to undertake further exciting research. It is with deep regret that Professor David Blane will be leaving the department but we are delighted that he has agreed to remain as an Emeritus Professor.

Milagros Ruiz has joined the Unit as a Research Associate. Originally an astrophysicist, Milagros has recently completed a Master’s degree at the University of Essex on Statistics and Data Analysis with a focus on Statistical Quality Control. Within the Unit, she will initially be looking at comparing out of hospital mortality rates in the UK, USA and other European countries. The aim is to shed light on the relationship between in-hospital mortality rates and lengths of stay. Carmen Tsang attended the LINNEAUS EURO-PC conference at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt on the 18 and 19 of September. Having attended a LINNEAUS project start-up meeting in 2009, this was an opportunity to learn about the final results of the 12 partner collaboration on patient safety in primary care, which is funded by the European Union Framework 7 Programme. The conference was led by Professor Aneez Esmail at University of Manchester who is the Director of one of the two newly funded NIHR Patient Safety Translational Research Centres (the other being at Imperial College, led by Professor Charles Vincent). Alex Bottle’s article, ‘Association between patient and general practice characteristics and unplanned first-time admissions for cancer: observational study’, recently published in the British Journal of Cancer was featured by a number of organisations and newspapers,

including Pulse, Cancer Research UK and The Daily Mail.

On 19 July, WHO Collaborating Centre staff member Elizabeth Dubois was awarded membership to the ‘Faculty of Public Health (FPH) through Distinction’. This award is only offered to those who are recognised as having distinguished themselves through significant contribution to the science and literature or practice of public health. This year’s award ceremony was held at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff.

Lizzie Cecil, who has been working within PCPH since October 2010, joined the Child Health Unit in September and has embarked on a PhD. Her research will look at reducing unplanned hospital admissions in children. The aim of the project is to investigate the factors associated with the rise in admissions: Is need, a rise in chronic and/or infectious disease dictating the trend or have other factors such as access and health seeking behaviour increased in influence over time? In October, Sonia Saxena and Jo Murray will attend the Society of Academic Primary Care (SAPC) conference in Glasgow where Jo will present a poster presentation on the incidence, natural history and management of bronchiolitis among infants in UK general practice.

Year 3 has seen an increase in intake which means it now has over 400 students compared to around 340 in Year 1. This increase in student numbers has meant recruiting even more GP tutors to teach, adding to the many already in use, some of whom are stationed as far as Shetland. More patients have been recruited for Year 1’s First Clinical Attachment which gives first year students the opportunity to meet patients and hear their experiences with long term care. “We publicised the programme through flyers/posters, which were sent to contacts and advertised in healthcare publications/magazines and so far the response has been great!” On another, sadder note, Kate Woodhouse, our Primary Care Undergraduate Education Manager, will be leaving the department in October. Kate has worked for Imperial College for 12 years and has been here with us at the department for 8 of those, racking up a colossal amount of knowledge and experience (not to mention wisdom!) which has been an invaluable asset to our department and the University as a whole. Kate leaves us for the peace and serenity of retirement, though with all the extra-curricular activities and community projects Kate loves to pursue, she may find herself busier than ever - or as Kate herself put it, “How did I ever find the time to work..!?” Kate will be missed by everyone here and we wish her all the best with her future ‘retirement’!

A study led by William Palmer on worse access to treatments, and poorer outcomes,

for stroke patients admitted at the weekend appeared on the front page of the

Telegraph and on Radio 4 in July. William is a part-time PhD student based at the Dr

Foster Unit, and his research focuses on the feasibility of using administrative data to

evaluate the quality and safety of hospital care. The paper confirmed previous

international studies which suggested a deficiency in the outcomes of patients

admitted at weekends but extended the existing analysis by providing explanations

for why this might be happening, including access to specialist staff and urgent

treatments. He hopes that the results will help accelerate the shift towards providing

a more consistent level of NHS care to emergency patients across all days of the

week. He plans to gloat about discussing the issue on live radio with Vanessa Feltz

before turning his attention to conducting similar work in obstetrics care.

“To my knowledge there are no

research units that do what we do”

The Child Health Unit was officially founded in spring 2012, making it one of the newest units in the department. Led by Dr Sonia Saxena, Senior Clinical Lecturer and GP, the team is made up of junior researchers including Jo Murray, Liz Koshy, Elizabeth Cecil and Myat Arrowsmith, with support from Dr Jessica Jones Nielson (Research Associate from the RDS Unit) and statistical expert Dr Alex Bottle of the Dr Foster Unit. The team also has approximately 10 affiliated members involved in active research collaboration.

The Child Health Unit has the unique ability of using NHS GPs to put real time information together to tell the story of what happens over time to the natural history of conditions that impact on children in childhood and into later life. The unit is the bridge between starting from scratch with expensive longitudinal cohorts where the research question is ill defined, and lab based research where the question is there but the patient is missing from the equation. With over 98% of British children under the umbrella of one health care system providing care from birth into adulthood, the unit can build powerful research tools from routine data that are captured when patients attend. This data is then used to observe what happens and design studies that will answer questions about how to improve health. As Dr Saxena notes, “To my knowledge there are no research units that do what we do”.

Although the unit is relatively young, they have already made an impact by reporting on the success of the pneumococcal vaccination programme in reducing the number of children and their older siblings who were admitted to hospital with pneumonia. For this work, the unit received prizes, media interest and the work was published in Thorax. But as Sonia explains, “the most important thing was the clarification that the vaccine was working and everyone understood the importance of maintaining uptake rates for its success”.

Research ideas for projects often come from actual scenarios. One of the unit’s key projects came from talking to parents who reported unhappy hours spent in local hospitals with sick children. They questioned junior doctors’ decisions to admit their children to the local hospital. Paediatrician colleagues pointed to the GP ‘opt out’ of responsibility for out of hours care and in exploring this issue, major increases were found in

the number of children being admitted and discharged on the same or next day from hospitals in England for common childhood illnesses, with a sharp increase in the period after the out of hours switch. The number of parents taking their children to emergency departments also increased by 40%. The study hit the media, with headlines in The Daily Telegraph proclaiming ‘Children needlessly admitted to hospital because of removal of GP out of hours cover’. Clearly, these findings have major implications not just for parents and families and the health professionals who are dealing with the problem, but for the whole health system. I now lead an NIHR funded work programme to tackle the problem entitled 'Reducing Short-stay Admissions for Childhood Acute illness', in close collaboration with the Dr Foster Unit and we are looking at the likely explanations and solutions in depth.

A few words about Kate Woodhouse by Dr Paul Booton

Dr Paul Booton has been appointed as the Chair of General Practice and Primary Care at St

George’s, University of London. Paul became the Head of Undergraduate Primary Care Teaching

at Imperial College London in 2005 and has been engaged in broadening and deepening primary

care's engagement in the undergraduate curriculum. The department congratulates Paul on his

new appointment.

I am used to churning out prose by the yard, but it is difficult to

write about Kate without everything sounding like a stream of

clichés. The problem is that Kate can only be described with

frequent recourse to superlatives. Quite simply, Kate is the best

administrator that I have ever worked with.

I first met Kate when I came for an interview for the director of

teaching role in 2004. She was the person who knew everything,

did everything and appeared to be in charge of everything. 8

years later I haven’t revised that opinion.

I’m glad to say that the unit has expanded over time, we got

additional support, and that has allowed Kate to show off her

higher level skills as a great intelligence behind the planning and

development of GP teaching, and more lately of assessment in

which she was keen to work. Not only is Kate good at the

mechanics of the exam, but also has a clear view of the

questions themselves; what will work and what won’t and where

the edits are needed.

Kate will be a most difficult act to follow. I would like to thank

her for the huge support she has given to me and to the

department. She leaves it with the perhaps the strongest

teaching group in London (I am of course biased), and that is in

no small measure due to her clear headed and fastidious

management and leadership.

So Dr Booton is leaving Charing Cross. We’ll miss him – he’s been a special boss

(special for all his good deeds… not special as in special needs).

For example he’s transformed Year 5 PACES

from being about hard and rare cases, to common stuff that we GP’s often see,

like “my head hurts” or “it stings when I pee”.

He stood up for GPs in the medical school; In high-powered committees he’s nobody’s fool.

The consultants have to take him seriously you see, because (so he tells us) he has MRCP.

But he has many qualifications other than these –

he is expert on cycling and keeping bees. (When I say cycling, I think his real passion

is for all the bright lycra and figure-hugging fashion).

One of the great things about our Dr Booton; he’s so laid back his chair should be a futon.

He’s funny, he’s loyal, and he’s boosted our pay scale - that’s why we forgive him for ignoring his email.

So now the Doctor has become a Professor –

there’s a lot to live up to for his successor. Paul’s off to South London with its riots and looting…

we hope you’ll be comfy in your new chair in Tooting! Poem by Graham Easton

The latest high-impact papers from PCPH colleagues include: Bottle A; Tsang C; Parsons C; Majeed A; Soljak M; Aylin P. (24 Jul 2012). Association between patient and general practice characteristics and unplanned first-time admissions for cancer: observational study. Br J Cancer.

Murray J; Saxena S; Modi N; Majeed A; Aylin P; Bottle A; on behalf of the Medicines for Neonates Investigator Group. (11 Sep 2012). Quality of routine hospital birth records and the feasibility of their use for creating birth cohorts. J Public Health.

Vamos EP, Harris M, Millett C, Pape UJ, Khunti K, Curcin V, Molokhia M, Majeed A. Association of systolic and diastolic blood pressure and all cause mortality in people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes: retrospective cohort study. BMJ 2012; 345.

Technologies for global health. The Lancet 2012. 380:507-535.

We are delighted to award Dr Elizabeth Koshy with a certificate for Most Outstanding 2012 MPH Pastoral Tutor. Her dedication and enthusiasm towards her students is commendable and we are excited to be able to award her with this title.

The Autumn Seminar Series 2012 is compiled by Agnieszka Ignatowitcz. There are some interesting speakers lined up over the next few weeks, so come and join us in the Seminar room, 3rd Floor, Reynolds Building from 12.30-1.30pm. The full schedule can be viewed on the department website along with past video recordings.

On Wednesday 14 November 2012 West London Primary Care Consortium (WLPCC) and London Journal of Primary Care (LJPC) are holding a joint conference entitled, ‘Transforming Primary Care: working with Academic Partners in North-West London’.

This event will offer a platform for update on research activities as well as integrated care and patients’ perspective in the evolving setting of Primary Care. Some of the key speakers include: Professor Derek Bell, Chair in Acute Medicine; and Azeem Majeed, Professor of Primary Care, Head of Primary Care and Public Health Department at Imperial College London. Registration is now open: Book Attendance For more information about the event or displaying a poster about your audit, evaluation and research please contact: Ela Augustyniak

The Department Christmas party will take place from 5.30pm, Wednesday 12

December at the Southern Belle on Fulham Palace Road. Get in to the festive spirit

and come join us for a few drinks and some nibbles! Santa hats essential!

Copyright © 2012

Department of Primary

Care & Public Health,

Imperial College

London

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