PEOPLE: CAREERS IN RESEARCH


CAREER IN RESEARCH


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Supporting a wider range of staff to undertake clinical research.


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he Clinical Academic Training Office (CATO), run jointly by the Trust and Imperial College London, is based at Hammersmith Hospital. Since 2015, it’s been lighting the way for Trust staff who want to build a career in research. Here, Professor Jeremy Levy, consultant nephrologist at the Trust and director of CATO, shares his vision for nurses, midwives, therapists, pharmacists and clinical scientists becoming tomorrow’s leaders in healthcare research:


Why is it important to help a wider network of clinical staff progress into a clinical academic career? Staff from diverse professional backgrounds often have different perspectives on patient care and this, in my opinion, is vital for academic research. Traditionally, it has been our doctors who have developed research careers alongside their practice – and we have an astonishing track record of discovery and innovation as a result. There are now very clear career pathways for doctors who want to undertake research – but not so much for other health professionals.


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What kind of support does the Trust provide to make this a reality?


There’s a series of educational events and programmes, including two bespoke courses called Starting Out in Research and Researcher Development Programme open to colleagues from any professional background. Career development events focus on topics like how to start an MSc, how to apply for a PhD and what to do once research funding has come to an end. As of 2018 we’ll have a mentoring programme in place for staff who are starting a PhD.


14 /Pulse Professor Jeremy Levy


Every year health professionals from a range of clinical backgrounds are encouraged to apply for annual research fellowships worth up to £50,000 funded by the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre and Imperial Health Charity. We’ve also got two new members of staff – Professor Mary Wells, lead nurse for research, and Dr Caroline Alexander, lead clinical academic for therapies. Both have a really strong track record of developing clinical staff and I think we’ll all benefit from their leadership.


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How can health professionals benefit from the Trust’s long track record in clinical research? I’d encourage all staff embarking on research to seek out academic leaders in their departments. Often establishing this relationship can lead to research being supervised by a doctor, who might have extensive experience in grant applications and can advise on other


funding sources. Over the last few years we’ve seen a number of unique and fruitful collaborations, like a dietician supervised by a kidney consultant and a speech and language therapist supervised by a surgeon.


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What examples do we have of influential research projects carried out by non-medical staff? Dr Lina Johansson is a dietician at the Trust and she conducted some significant research into frail, elderly patients who have dialysis. This has impacted clinical care in the sense that we now assess their frailty, nutritional needs and much more before they start dialysis. Dr Johansson’s research has been published extensively. She has won a PhD and lectureship and has developed a national role for her work.


FOR MORE INFORMATION


Click here to visit the website email: cato@imperial.ac.uk or call 020 3313 1373


www.imperial.nhs.uk


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