Congratulations to Dr Cerys Currie, winner of the Science Category in the Women of the Future Awards. She received her award at a ceremony in London on Wednesday 9 November. Two members of Warwick Medical School were shortlisted this year. Alongside Cerys, Postdoctoral Research Fellow and final year medical student Ramat Ayoola, was nominated in the Community Spirit category.

A summary reportLink opens in a new window from the UK Commission on Bereavement (UKCB)Link opens in a new window was released earlier this week. Researchers in the UAPC were awarded a small grant from Marie Curie to provide a secondary analysis of the qualitative survey responses to contribute the commission report findings and recommendations.

The UKCB was set up to investigate and better understand the experiences of bereaved people and families, and how support and availability of support can be improved for them. This has become necessary due to the increase in number of people bereaved during the pandemic and the subsequent increased demand for bereavement support services. The UKCB was led by researchers and policy managers at Marie Curie but involved multiple charities, external researchers, and a PPIE advisory group with lived experience.

The report focuses on key challenges for both adults and children when experiencing a bereavement including practical death administration, communication with family and friends, and access to formal bereavement services. The report includes key recommendations for changes in policy and practice about how support for bereaved people could be improved, both now and in the long term.

The Data Science and Artificial Intelligence showcase will be held at Warwick this year and is open to anyone in the research teams and wider audiences active in Data Science and AI.
The two keynote speakers are directly aligned to Women in STEM, with Anne-Maire Imafidon almost confirmed as the closing plenary speaker.

There will also be a poster exhibition, and full details on how to enter can be found with this link Poster Competition - submissions just need to be a high-res PDF, all printing costs are covered and there are a few prizes up for grabs.
Register here and join us to debate  

Tommer Spence has been awarded a PhD in Health Sciences for their PhD on ‘The Perceptions and Experiences of Using Internet-Based Testing for Sexually Transmitted Infections’. Tommer was supervised by Frances Griffiths in the Division of Health Sciences and Jonathan Ross.

Kirstie Shearman has been awarded a PhD in Health Sciences for her PhD on ‘Improving Information for Research Participation’. Kirstie was supervised by Heather Draper and Greg Moorlock in the Division of Health Sciences.

Monday 11 July, 12.00pm, GLT3 - Please note change of date

Dr David Gregor-Kumar, the BBC West Midlands Science Correspondent, will be coming to talk to the network. Come along and learn how to speak about your research and teaching on the radio or TV and counteract the under-representation of women scientists who broadcast their findings. Please let Stephanie Smart (s.smart@warwick.ac.uk) know if you are planning on attending for numbers and catering purposes, along with any dietary requirements.

During the Covid-19 pandemic hospice care across the West Midlands fell below the “gold-standard” despite the best efforts of frontline healthcare professionals. This news has been revealed in a report from the end of life charity Marie Curie, based on research from WMS led by Dr John MacArtney. Read the university's press release hereLink opens in a new window and the full report and films explaining the study and findings hereLink opens in a new window.

This 3.5 year PhD studentship provides a unique opportunity for a promising social or health science researcher to undertake research aimed at influencing the future of palliative care services. The student will investigate the relationship between wider ideas of society and healthcare as complex and how palliative care understands itself as addressing people’s ‘complex needs’.

Following the summer '21 launch of our new Annual Refresher course on Data Protection & Information Security, we have now completed production of a single new Induction course. It will be ready for launch and use by all new employees from 31 January 2022 as part of their mandatory new starter training.

New Induction Training for Data Protection & Information Security launches 31 January 2022 (warwick.ac.uk)

This is a WBS/UAPC PhD studentship on “Health, climate change and innovation- Supporting the sustainability transition in the health care sector”. The research will develop a programme theory with which to propose and evaluate specific interventions designed to support the sustainability transition in the primary health care sector.

Julia Walsh has been awarded a PhD in Health Sciences for their PhD on ‘Using spontaneously generated online patient experiences to improve healthcare: A case study using Modafinil’. Julia was supervised by Frances Griffiths in the Division of Health Sciences and Jonathan Cave.

Hilda Kabambe has been awarded a PhD in Health Sciences for their PhD on ‘Female sex workers' experiences with access to health care services in Malawi’. Hilda was supervised by Sophie Staniszewska and Kate Seers in the Division of Health Sciences.

Read more about Liz's experience below:

I was awarded the British Empire Medal for two things, firstly the work I did as Staff Covid Swabbing Hub Lead with the Wolverhampton Quality Team, which is part of Black Country and West Birmingham CCG. This involved being day to day operational lead, and also taking a strategic lead on planning and the development of standard operating procedures and policies for staff swabbing. Secondly it was for leading on a Strategy and Retention Plan for General Practice Nursing across the CCG footprint, which was recognised by NHS England and Improvement.

Both of these projects were 100% team effort and couldn't have been achieved without the support of my clinical and non-clinical colleagues (from the CCG, general practice, acute trust and local authority) who worked on everything from policy development and co-design, to swabbing, security and marshaling, to booking patients in, chasing and recording results, to training, organising estate and the supply of equipment and PPE. I'm proud to share the award with them.

We unfortunately didn't win the HSJ Patient Safety Team of the year award but were shortlisted for the work we did around staff and care home swabbing, improving infection prevention procedures with the aim of reducing harm and safeguarding patients.

A new drug to lower cholesterol which was appraised by Warwick Evidence will be made available to hundreds of thousands of NHS patients.

Congratulations to Dr Lucy Hammond, who has recently achieved recognition as a Principal Fellow of Advance HE. Principal Fellowships are awarded to highly experienced and/or senior staff with wide-ranging academic or academic-related strategic leadership responsibilities in connection with key aspects of teaching and supporting learning.

Congratulations to Helen Nolan for her research publication in leading medical education journal Medical Education. Read it here: Medical Educators’ views and experiences of trigger warnings in teaching sensitive content

Manjula Patel has been awarded a PhD in Health and Social Studies for their PhD on ‘Compassionate Communities Approaches to End of Life Care as a Therapeutic Landscape’. Manjula was supervised by Anne-Marie Slowther and Gillian Hundt in the Division of Health Sciences.

Warwick Medical School authors, Dr Helen Atherton, Dr Jo Parsons and Dr Carol Bryce looked at the rate of missed GP appointments in the UK. Their findings are published in the BJGP and Jo Parsons is also interviewed in a podcast discussing some of the findings and implications of this work.

Missed general practice appointments have considerable time and cost implications for the NHS, and leaves patients with unmet health needs, and potentially delayed diagnoses or medical treatment. This systematic review, entitled ‘Which patients miss appointments with general practice and the reasons why’ updated work conducted in 2003, and aimed to examine the rate of missed booked appointments, which patients are more likely to miss appointments, and some reasons for this. Findings of this review has potential implications for practices in targeting interventions to patients that are at increased likelihood of missing appointments, and in attempting to overcome common reasons that appointments are missed.

More information can be found on the GP Online webpages here.

Professor Kate Seers has been conferred the honour of being admitted to the Freedom of The Barbers’ Company by Presentation, “in recognition of her immense contribution to the Company’s Clinical Nursing Scholarship Award programme” starting on 19th July 2021. This is a great honour and only 1% of Freemen join via Presentation (where the Court invites them to join the Company).

Hospice care across the West Midlands has received an exciting boost as WMS researchers have received a quarter of a million pound grant to establish better care for terminally ill patients.

Rachel Spencer (GP Academic Clinical Lecturer with UAPC) has been awarded a highly competitive NIHR Advanced Fellowship. This award is for £850,000 over four years and is the largest funding ever to be handled by Coventry and Rugby CCG.

We are pleased to share news that eight members of the WMS community have secured Fellowships with the University's Institute of Engagement.

BMJ Article

Congratulations to Professor Felicity Boardman who has been made a Foundation Fellow of the Warwick Institute of Engagement.