Medical School Deals With Trainee Doctors' Lack of Sleep
Teaching staff at Warwick Medical School have long been
concerned that Trainee doctors do not get enough sleep. Sleep in
the classroom that is. Despite sleep patterns being a major
contributor to a number of illnesses on average most undergraduate
doctors in the UK receive only 5 minutes education on sleep
medicine. Warwick Medical School has now moved to address that
balance.
Warwick Medical School has just ended a pilot year in which it
offered a sleep study option to its curriculum for trainee doctors.
In the pilot year 10 students signed up for the special option
which gave them over 30 hours of sleep study.
The course inspired one of the students (Andy Currie) so much that
he had an article published in BMJ careers journal and another
student on the course, Sarah Padley, has decided to take her sleep
studies further choosing to work with sleep specialists in Harvard
for her elective.
Andy Currie said:
"Problems sleeping is one of the commonest reasons a patient
will present to their doctor and yet sleep medicine receives hardly
any coverage in the undergraduate curriculum. Warwick Medical
School is progressive in that it runs a special sleep study module
where students are exposed to all aspects of sleep and can see
patients in sleep laboratories."
Now, with the support of a £2 million donation from
international biopharmaceutical company Cephalon Inc., Warwick
Medical School intends to expand its special sleep study module,
allowing a greater number of students to participate. The donation
will also allow the University of Warwick to develop a new stream
of sleep related research. Professor Francesco Cappuccio has this
week taken up the post of Cephalon Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine
and Epidemiology at Warwick Medical School and will build a
research team that will examine the relationship of sleep to a
number of other health factors. Cephalon Inc. has funded two sleep
related chairs to date, at Harvard University and now at Warwick
Medical School.
For further information please contact:
Professor Ed Peile, Associate Dean (Teaching)
Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick
Ed.Peile@warwick.ac.uk
Tel: 024 76573088
Andy Currie Sarah Padley can be contacted via Peter Dunn whose
details follow:
Peter Dunn, Press and Media Relations Manager
University of Warwick Tel: 02476 523708 or 07767 655860
p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk
PR53 PJD 26th July 2005