Medicine Matters

Professor Simone Buitendijk appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds

After four years as Vice-Provost (Education) and Professor of Maternal and Child Health at Imperial College London, Professor Buitendijk joined the University in September 2020, after Sir Alan Langlands stepped down from the role.

Professor Buitendijk said: “I am honoured to be appointed as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds. The University has an impressive track record in education and research. It has clearly been thriving under the leadership of Sir Alan Langlands and I am thrilled to be provided with the opportunity to build on these strong foundations.”

Before Imperial, Professor Buitendijk held a senior leadership role as Vice-Rector at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

She was responsible for education, student affairs and diversity; and played a major role in the overall strategic leadership and direction of the university as a member of a three-person leadership team. She was previously head of a large research group in Applied Sciences at TNO in the Netherlands and concurrently Professor of Maternal and Child Health at Leiden University Medical Centre and Professor of Midwifery Studies at the University of Amsterdam Medical Centre.

Raft of awards in New Year and Birthday Honours

Professor Phil Heywood has received an MBE in the New Year’s Honours, for services to maternal healthcare overseas in his role as a volunteer for Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).

Phil was a North Leeds general practitioner between 1975 and 1997 during which he had part-time teaching and research contracts with the University, mainly GP tutor, then Deputy Director of Centre for Research in Primary Care. He was Professor of Primary Care Development from 1997 to 2006, heading the Academic Unit from 1999. He retired from the University in 2006 and from the NHS a year later. The award relates to his post-retirement volunteering with VSO.

Congratulations to Divya Chadha Manek, the NIHR Clinical Research Network’s (CRN) Business Development and Marketing Director, who has been awarded an OBE for services to the government during the COVID-19 response as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Divya was seconded to the Government’s Vaccine’s Taskforce as the Clinical Trials Lead responsible for overseeing the UK COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials portfolio. Divya was tasked with supporting pharmaceutical companies to quickly generate the evidence required to establish the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines, by coordinating the rapid setup and delivery of large-scale vaccine trials through the NHS.

Dr Jonathan Sheffield, former Chief Executive, has been awarded a CBE. Jonathan has a long record of delivering operational support to a wide range of health research in the NHS. During the pandemic, he provided operational leadership for the COVID-19 research response across the Department for Health and Social Care, NIHR and NHS. Jonathan has been awarded a CBE for his “services to medical research, particularly during the COVID-19 response”.

Gillian leads the way on student champion scheme

Each year, Professor Gillian Leng CBE (Physiology 1982; Medicine 1987; MD 1994) returns to Leeds to give a presentation to students in the lecture theatre where she spent many hours as an undergraduate medic.

As Chief Executive of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), she is keen for young medics to learn how to find and use good data to aid clinical decisions. She was therefore delighted that Leeds was one of the first universities to sign up to the NICE student champion scheme. The scheme improves the routine use of evidence-based information by future health and social care staff by providing students with additional training and support to become Evidence Search Champions.

For more about Gillian’s role and work visit the University alumni website.

Medicine professors receive mentions on Highly Cited Researchers list

Congratulations to Professors Paul Emery, Alex Ford and Mark Wilcox from the School of Medicine, who have been named on the annual Highly Cited Researchers 2020 list from Clarivate.

The annual list identifies researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field or fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade. Their names are drawn from the publications that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science citation index.

Emeritus Professor
Monty Losowsky
MD FRCP
1931 - 2020

Monty Seymour Losowsky was born in the East End of London in 1931, the son of immigrant parents fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe. Monty was brought up in straitened circumstances but nonetheless excelled academically at The Coopers’ Company School.

He gained a place at Leeds Medical School, qualified with honours in 1955, became MRCP in 1958 and gained an MD in 1961. By then he had developed an interest in gastroenterology and worked at specialist liver units at the Hôpital St Antoine, Paris in 1960 and at Harvard University in 1961.

In 1962 Monty returned to the Leeds General Infirmary where he built a strong clinical research programme in gastrointestinal and liver disease. In 1969 Monty became Professor of Medicine and was appointed to develop academic departments at the newly established St James’s University Hospital.

Monty founded the university department of medicine at St James’s and established a comprehensive gastroenterology service. He was instrumental in the introduction of liver transplantation in 1986 with Geoffrey Giles and by 1992 they had established a separate hepatology service, which is now of international repute.

From 1989 to 1994 Monty was the Dean of the School of Medicine. When Monty retired in 1996 he became the Executive Chairman of the newly established Thackray Medical Museum at St James’s.

His dedication to his adopted city was recognised in 2014 when he was given The Leeds Award by the Lord Mayor. Monty Losowsky made huge contributions as a physician, scholar and educator. He never lost his enthusiasm and commitment to St James’s and it was appropriate that during his final illness he was cared for in the gastroenterology ward there.

He died on 8 May 2020 and will be remembered by many ex-colleagues, patients and friends with gratitude and great respect.

Physician Associates at Leeds: Learning in a pandemic

The Physician Associate (PA) Studies course welcomed its first students in September 2015 and was designed with the ongoing workforce crisis in mind. At the time, this profession was virtually unheard of in the Yorkshire and Humber region, so work needed to be done to increase awareness throughout the clinical providers. Fortunately, we were successful at sharing our vision with them and they now host many of our students on placements as well employing the majority of our graduates. PAs are now working in a number of areas in the region including primary care, secondary care and mental health.

Physician Associates work as part of the multi disciplinary healthcare team; they are trained to a medical model that started life at Leeds very closely aligned with that of the MBChB. As our experience has increased the PA programme has become a distinct entity and innovative ways of delivering the course have since been introduced. As the number of qualified PAs has increased in the region our students are able to really see what the role entails in the workplace and patients and staff have welcomed them into the NHS workforce.

A group of current PA students have written a ‘day in the life of PA student during a pandemic’. This gives different perspectives of students that have experienced pre and post-COVID times.

A day in the life of a Physician Associate student

First year Physician Associate student:

Training to be a PA has definitely been challenging in the current climate but has been a great learning experience. Currently, a week in the life of a first year PA student involves a mix of online teaching, face to face clinical skills and primary care placements.

Teaching online has been an interesting experience so far. With technical blips and pet appearances I feel we have still been able to have a valuable learning experience! As the course is a small cohort, split further into smaller groups in some sessions, it has been great for interacting with lecturers and peers more.

The anatomy practicals have been useful over Zoom, allowing you to put into context everything you learn by still seeing it first-hand. Clinical skills have been great too. It has given us a chance to practice our clinical skills which is invaluable for becoming a PA. It has also allowed us to build relationships with other people on the course as being online means we don’t see each other in person often. This makes you feel more supported whilst on the course as everyone is in the same boat and if you are struggling there is someone that you can talk to.

Primary care placements are different due to COVID-19 and there is less face to face contact. However it is still valuable experience in the long term and is useful to practice telephone consultations as telephone triage will always be a vital process within primary care.

Getting to placement for 9am and starting the day with your own consultation list has been a learning experience. These slots are normally filled with less complex consultations where patients present with acute problems and get progressively more complex as we build more confidence. We take a detailed history from the patient and discuss with our supervisor about the management and treatment plans for the patient.

Alongside telephone slots, there are opportunities to practice clinical skills with nurses such as injections and taking bloods which really helps in building your confidence. Face to face appointments are usually seen in the afternoon, this involves you sitting in on consultations with your supervisor, allowing opportunities to practice examinations and taking vital signs.

Emma Butterworth and Jess Tomkins (Year 1)

Second year Physician Associate student:

As a second-year Physician Associate student, my learning experience has been split into pre-COVID and post- COVID, meaning that we have been required to adapt to the challenges that a global pandemic brings. In comparison to the first year students, the vast majority of my second year thus far has involved secondary care placements across a variety of medical specialities, allowing me to further develop my skills with the aim of becoming well- rounded a Physician Associate upon employment.

Currently, I have just finished a rotation on general surgery; a fast-moving environment that has remained busy throughout the pandemic due to dealing with patients with acute and emergency surgical presentations.

On this ward, a day in the life of a Physician Associate student has largely involved clerking patients and discussing with senior staff, alongside being involved in the initial investigations and management that a patient requires. As my skills have advanced during my time as a Physician Associate student, this has allowed me to integrate more within my placements and become more involved in patient care, reflecting what my role as a Physician Associate may encompass once I become qualified.

However, like most areas of the hospital, even this speciality has been affected by COVID-19. A major example of this was when a patient tested positive for COVID-19 within the assessment unit, resulting in the entirety of the assessment unit no longer being able to accept any patients. Unsurprisingly, this resulted in major implications for other areas of the hospital until the situation could be resolved; yet another reminder of the daily challenges that COVID-19 continues to bring. Despite this adversity, the staff remained unwavering in their medical duties, allowing me to reflect on their perseverance in providing optimal medical care for all their patients.

Overall, a day in the life of Physician Associate student is varied and exciting, with rotating around differing specialities constantly bringing new experiences and challenges. As I begin to approach the end of my time as a Physician Associate student, I feel that these experiences continue to develop me into a competent practitioner ready to join the ever- expanding Physician Associate workforce within the NHS.

Sarah Carbert (Year 2)

Mentoring newly qualified doctors in a pandemic

One of the responses by medical schools in the UK to the pandemic was to graduate the final year medical students 2 - 3 months earlier than usual so that they could start clinical work.

Obviously a proper assessment was made of their capabilities and final year students in Leeds started their clinical work in hospitals in April and May 2020.

I was asked by the medical school if I would volunteer to mentor one of these newly qualified doctors in order to ensure they were fully supported during their early days and weeks in the work place since they were likely to be more anxious than normal in view of the slightly earlier graduation and the unusual circumstances as a result of the pandemic.

My mentee was allocated to work at Pinderfields Hospital, Wakefield and was there for two months undertaking the duties of an FY1 doctor.

The mentoring role in these circumstances was potentially challenging but I considered it was important and a useful contribution to the overall efforts of the NHS in the crisis.

Charlie and I had not met and a face-to-face meeting was not possible due to the COVID-19 restrictions but we spoke frequently by phone during his time at Pinderfields.

He was clearly well-supported by colleagues there and only expected to work within his level of competence. I was pleased to hear that no unexpected demands were made. I was able to reassure him that many of the worries he may feel were common, and indeed I could remember similar anxieties of my own when starting as a house officer at St James’s almost 50 years ago!

Charlie went on to start his FY1 year, as already arranged, at a hospital in south London. However, we have kept in touch regularly and all is well.

I have enjoyed the experience of mentoring in these circumstances and I think it has been of help to Charlie. Sadly we have still not been able to meet but we hope to do so in Leeds when he is eventually able to attend a graduation ceremony. The willingness of medical students to respond to calls for help in the pandemic reminds us all of the altruism which underlies our professional vocation.