News and Events
We are pleased to announce that this year’s Thackrah Lecture will be given by Professor Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health. The title of the lecture will be ‘Public Health now’. The event will take place from 12-1pm on the 28th June in the Yorkshire Bank Lecture Theatre, University of Leeds. The LIHS Postgraduate Symposium will also take place on this date. We are expecting high demand for places so please email lihs@leeds.ac.uk even at this early stage to reserve yours.
Click here for the lecture flyer. For further information on the lecture series see http://www.leeds.ac.uk/lihs/thackrah.html .
Professor Andrew Green officially retired as Head of the Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development (NCIHD) on 31 December 2011. Andrew started his international career in 1973 as an Economics Teacher with the British Volunteer Programme in Sierra Leone. He continued to develop his interest in internationalism with a focus on low and middle income countries, joining the ‘Nuffield Institute for Health’ in 1989 as a Senior Lecturer and member of the management team. He has made significant contributions to LIHS and the wider University over the years, and his work in Health Policy, Planning and Health Systems Development has had a great impact on the improvement of health systems and the capacity of health professionals internationally, and on the many students fortunate enough to come under his supervision. NCIHD held a party for him on 21st December to thank him for his contributions and wish him well in his forthcoming retirement.
Over 60 student delegates from all over the UK attended the P.U.L.S.E (Primary care at the University of Leeds Student Experience) national student primary care conference at LIHS On 26th and 27th November 2011 to learn more about a career in General Practice and present their primary care related research. Key note speakers including Trisha Greenhalgh, Richard Smith and James Gray were ‘inspirational’. Student research had been rigorously peer reviewed prior to the event and was of a very high standard. Original research and audit was presented in poster and oral format in a supportive, yet competitive environment. Howell Jones (UCL) was awarded the Yvonne Carter Prize for best student oral presentation for his qualitative research entitled ‘are GP consortia ready to provide services to sex workers?’ and Rochelle Velho (Birmingham) won best poster for ‘Awareness of folic acid supplements in preventing neural tube defects.’
Highlights from the parallel sessions included Dr Iain Brew on prison medicine and Dr Vikesh Sharma from the Junior Doctors International Committee on working abroad as a GP. Students were also grateful for the opportunity to learn about getting published as a medical student (Neil Chanchlani, Student BMJ) and getting into GP Training (Dr Diana Treece) as well as about academic foundation posts (Danny Jones), GPwsIs (Dr Amar Bal) and GPs involved in sports medicine (Dr Daniel Wardleworth). The evident success of the conference was a testament to the hard work of the P.U.L.S.E committee, a group of ten medical students who had undertaken the intercalated BSc in Primary Care at the University of Leeds and to the generous sponsorship of the RCGP Yorkshire Faculty.
Leeds Institute of Health Sciences (LIHS) together with St. Gemma’s Hospice has appointed a new Chair in Palliative Medicine, Professor Mike Bennett. Mike will be leading research to develop and test innovative treatments aimed at improving the care of patients who have an incurable illness. It is hoped that this work could allow more patients to stay at home for longer, reduce the severity of their symptoms, reduce their families' fears and anxieties, and improve the quality of life for themselves and their families. Professor Bennett will be based both at LIHS in the Academic Unit of Primary Care and at the newly launched Academic Unit of Palliative Care at St Gemma's, who will be funding the costs of the new research unit for the first five years.
Left to right: Mike Bennett with LIHS Director Allan House, Head of the Academic Unit of Primary Care at LIHS, Robbie Foy and Mike Stockton, Director of Medicine and Consultant in Palliative Care at St Gemma's Hospice
LIHS has recently appointed a new Chair of International Health Systems Research. Tim Ensor is an economist with extensive experience of working and researching internationally, especially in low and middle income countries. His research focuses on the financing of health in developing and transitional countries, including the funding of maternal health, demand-side finance barriers, methods for assessing the effectiveness of public funding and costing of essential services.
We would like to wish Professor Chris McCabe, founding Director of the Academic Unit of Health Economics (AUHE), continuing success in his move to the University of Alberta, Canada. Chris joined LIHS in 2007 and under his guidance the AUHE has gone from strength to strength building a strong team with a large portfolio of applied and methodological health economics research. Whilst he will be greatly missed by his friends and colleagues we are happy announce that Chris will continue to work with LIHS in his role as Visiting Professor in AUHE. We look forward to ongoing research collaboration between Leeds and Alberta within the World Universities Network.
Vivienne Sercombe, Business Manager for Learning and Teaching in the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, retires this year after twenty five years of service to the University. Viv first joined the University in 1986 taking up the position of Secretary to Professor Andrew Green in the International Division of the former Nuffield Centre for Health Services Studies. She was promoted in 1993 to Information and Admissions Officer in the organisation's Common Services Division, playing a key role in the achievement of a rare 24 out of 24 rating in the University sector's Teaching Quality and Assessment Exercise. Viv was appointed to her current role in 2006 when the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences was first formed.
For the last five years she has provided expert advice and support, not only to members of her own institution, but to a wide range of colleagues in Learning and Teaching across the School of Medicine and the wider Faculty of Medicine and Health. She will be greatly missed and we wish her all the best for the future.
