Medicine Matters

Read part 1 of Medicine Matters

Exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

In February the Faculty organised a joint webinar with the University’s Alumni and Development team to explore the impact and realities of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The popular online event, attended by over 240 guests, recognised some of the extraordinary and ongoing efforts of the University community during the pandemic.

Professor Paul Stewart, Advisor on Health Policy & Research spoke about the impact of COVID-19 on the Faculty’s 1,200 staff and 5,000 students, as well as the changes that have been implemented to enable the continuation of research and teaching in Medicine, Dentistry, Healthcare and Psychology.

Attendees also heard from Dr Manoj Sivan, Associate Clinical Professor in Rehabilitation Medicine, who discussed his research into the scale of the long term symptoms of COVID-19 and the need for timely and targeted rehabilitation interventions.

As part of the webinar, two current Leeds students shared their experience of how University life has changed as well as the realities of undertaking placements in these exceptional times.

Final year medical student Chantelle Waddington was one of those that spoke: “It’s been really rewarding to have been able to make a difference. I’m amazed by all of our NHS colleagues and have been so impressed by how accommodating staff on placement have been in helping us develop our experience.”

Feedback from the event was overwhelmingly positive with one attendee saying: “The webinar gave me a real insight to the lives and bravery of so many. Thank you for the opportunity to learn of the dedication of those of whom have and will continue to follow their calling.”

Watch the replay of the event below:

Students support testing and vaccination efforts in Leeds

Over 200 students from the Faculty of Medicine and Health have been trained to work in the University’s asymptomatic testing centres on campus. The University set up testing centres in the Refectory and The Edge to offer free and fast asymptomatic coronavirus tests on campus, initially for students who wanted to leave their university accommodation for the winter break. The centres have remained in use for asymptomatic testing for staff and students who need to be on campus to deliver essential services or to support students in certain subjects, such as medicine and dentistry, to continue their studies uninterrupted.

In addition, students have also been trained to administer the COVID- 19 vaccine at centres across Leeds which have been available to the public.

Two medical students outline why they got involved to work at the centres.

“I chose to work at the testing centre because I thought it was a good opportunity to get involved and do my bit during the pandemic. It was a great way to help the university out as I had some extra time during my placement when I applied. As a year 4 medical student, it’s really beneficial to know what going on in both the education and healthcare sectors and to see the difference in the implementation of measures to help with the pandemic.

It’s been really lovely being able to see people feel more confident about getting back to some form of normality and provides reassurance to people that they aren’t passing on the virus to their loved ones. It has also given me the chance to meet some younger year students in various healthcare areas and the impact it has had on their university experience has been pretty detrimental. This was a good way of helping to be safe, particularly when travelling home to family and give them some hope of a path to some form of normality.”

Daneille Murdock, MBChB Year 4

“During the first lockdown I wished that I was more qualified so I could do more to help. When it came to November and I saw an advert through Leeds University Union for a job on the vaccine programme, I knew I had to go for it. A couple of months later and there I am, standing in the Elland Road COVID-19 Mass Vaccination Centre, waiting for my first patient to arrive.

I felt a mixture of excitement to be finally starting the role, nervousness about vaccinating my first person and pride that I was doing something to give back. Having helped deliver flu vaccines before on my GP rotation this year, I wasn’t nervous about giving the injection itself, more how people would react, given the negative press surrounding public perceptions of the vaccine. What I didn’t expect was the immense gratitude that my colleagues and I would receive from the public. Every person was incredibly thankful and took the time to praise us all for our work in vaccinating the population.

What I really love about the job is that I feel like my efforts are really making a difference. Being part of a team helping to vaccinate several thousand people every day is really rewarding. It reminds me of the reasons why I applied to medicine in the first place – to work with the public and to save lives. Every time I go to work, I become more and more excited to finally qualify as a doctor.”

Alex Flach, MBChB Year 4

Solving the climate crisis through creativity

In early 2018, a group of organisations and companies from the cultural and creative sectors of Leeds came together to respond to the climate crisis. From this, Sustainable Arts in Leeds (SAIL) was formed to share and establish best practice to reduce the carbon footprint of the creative sector. But through collective influence to engage everyone in climate change awareness, it doesn’t stop there. Jamie Saye, Founder of SAIL, talks to student reporter Grace Rahmatallah.

Can you tell me about the work of SAIL?

We’re a community interest company and our aim is to unite the creative and cultural industries of Leeds so that we can tackle climate change at the local level. We learn from each other and we share best practice training as well. We’ve negotiated ways to get the organisations within SAIL to have lower carbon footprint through having a renewable energy tariff which we’ve secured, and then we’re also using our power as a network to lobby for changes at a council level, to support organisations to become more sustainable as well. We recently hit the 100-member mark so as a sector it seems like we are starting to move in the right direction.

What have you learned through your work with SAIL which could be transferred to improving medical education?

Developing understanding of what the science behind climate change is and how we got to this point and how this affects people’s health, the obvious stuff around air pollution. For example, fossil fuel polluting vehicles and industries spewing out all this stuff which we’re then breathing in, their potential impacts on our food supply and potential increased amounts of stress due to things like transport breaking down because of floods. It’s interconnected, and climate change doesn’t exist in this vacuum. It’s pervasive in literally everything and there’s no point in ignoring it.

What would you advise to doctors and other health care workers to improve sustainability?

There’s so many things you can do that aren’t particularly sexy but really work and that’s why I think a lot of things get ignored. There are simple things like looking at what energy your workplace is using and why it’s using it, and not assuming that it’s someone else’s job to think about that, because everyone else may think it’s everyone else’s job. Just think about what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Continuing to do something because that’s the way it’s always been done is the worst reason to ever do anything ever. Evaluate your processes. Look at your buildings. Look at the obvious stuff, or maybe not so obvious stuff or look at the boring stuff, because that might be where you can make the biggest gains. Like procurement, often you just get the thing that’s easiest or cheapest, and that’s usually not the best for sustainability.

What advice can you give to somebody who wants to promote attitudinal change in light of sustainability?

I think if you can explain why these attitudinal habits are so important then that conversation becomes easier to have. Also, making people understand what is within their sphere of influence, because I think especially for climate change, it can feel like this monstrous all-encompassing thing that you’re like, “how on earth as an individual can I have any sort of impact on that?”. And you can, there’s so much you can do. I think it’s recognising what is within your control, that is quite important. And then once you kind of solve the thing that’s within your control, then you can go “OK, what’s the next thing?” And then work from there, but it is hard that kind of initial change. It’s addictive, it starts with recycling and then you end up starting your own company!

Interview by Grace Rahmatallah,
BSc in Applied Health (Medical Education)

Monty to be remembered in opportunity for students

Professor Monty Losowsky was not only a past Dean of the Medical School and Professor of Medicine, he was also the much admired President of the Thackray Museum of Medicine, housed in the old Workhouse at St. James’s University Hospital.

This year, to honour his memory, a joint collaboration between the Leeds Medical School and the Museum will see the inaugural Annual Monty Losowsky Memorial Lecture which will be a competition open to all students at the School with a first prize of £1,000, kindly sponsored by Leeds based OneMedical Group, a medal and a place on an Honours Board within the Faculty.

Leeds alumnus, Dr Neil Kaiper-Holmes, the current Chair of the Museum, said: “We are very pleased to mark the tremendous contribution that Monty made to medicine in our city with this competition which we hope will be a fitting tribute in recognising the lifetime interest that Monty had in medical education. Students will be encouraged to write a lecture on any medical topic, past, present or future and the best three will then give their lecture to a live audience in front of an eminent judging panel with the winner recognised in perpetuity in their Alma Mater as well as with a welcome boost to their finances.”

This year the final will be held on Thursday 14 October as a virtual event, but it is anticipated that in future years it will be held in a suitably prestigious venue such as The Great Hall of the University, the Museum or the Town Hall in Leeds.

You live in London on the moon,
250,000 miles and months away,
down South.

You call me when you fall and plunge
in lunar seas of crises, clouds
or craters fathoms deep.

I offer light in seconds, hours, over years,
hope it finds your shadowed self,
half-hidden from the sun.

You ask me, sometimes,
if my sky is overcast or filled with meteors and stars.
I don’t know what to say.

My Northern nights are unpolluted, clear and bright
I search for constellations
I can’t name in empty dark.

I study orbits, phases on a calendar,
the apogee and perigee
that rule our interaction.

Then put on walking boots, a mask and plot
eccentric paths across the universe to you.

Poem written by:
Dr Emma Storr, Visiting Associate Professor