Imperial College MPH

The Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London is offering 14 scholarships for students starting Master's courses in October 2014. The application deadline is 31 March 2014 and offers will be made by 31 May 2014. Applications are invited from outstanding candidates from Imperial College London, the UK and worldwide who have the potential to become leaders in their field. There are no restrictions on nationality. See http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/teaching/mastersdegreescholarships / for further details. 

The latest Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI) newsletter has been published.  See  https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/schisto/Public/SCI_Newsletter_Dec2013.pdf

Do you or someone you supervise want to learn how to use the statistical programme Stata? Hilary Watt, Statistician in the Department of Primary Care & Public Health at Imperial College has prepared some resources that may be useful to help you get to grips with Stata and make the most out of the programme. See Learning Stata and  Teaching Stata

Following comments from student representatives, we have posted timetables for the MPH and the MSc in Epidemiology in Google Calendar , which is a versatile and user-friendly tool. We have uploaded lecture times and events for the following weeks, but this is a trial, so please give us your feedback.

On the 24th August 2013, Professor Salman Rawaf – WHO Collaborating Centre Director - and Dr Sondus Hassounah – WHO CC Research Assistant, presented the finding of their latest research on the Right to Health in the Arab World at the Irish Centre for Human Rights in Galway, Ireland. The Conference was a intended to show case the work of all those participating in the global study; The Right to Health: a multi-country study of law, policy and practice, which offers an in-depth assessment and comprehensive analysis of the ‘Right to Health’ in the Middle East and North Africa, with particular emphasis on the role of Health systems in providing Universal Coverage for Health (UHC) and Health Care. This study focuses on the implementation of the right to health at a regional and national level. The project brings together a set of experts from different parts in the world, which each analyse the implementation of the right to health in their country or region, thereby focusing on a part

Thank you for your interest in the Imperial College MPH programme. The 2014-15 MPH course starts in October 2014. Applications for entry will open in November 2013. I cannot tell you at this stage whether you will be eligible for the MPH because the decision is made by the Admissions Team when they have an opportunity to view your degree results and IELTS score if relevant. We generally require a First Class or Upper Second Class degree from a good university, or a medical degree. A good personal statement about why you want to undertake the MPH course is essential. Previous public health experience is also helpful. You should take the opportunity to find out more about public health, for example, from the  FPH website  ( www.fph.org.uk ). We have several international student societies at Imperial to provide students with some peer support away from their home country. Do check out the visa rules before you apply if you intend to stay in the UK after the MPH as these opportunities

The winners of the 2012-13 MPH Student Prizes were Monica Koo (Best Student Prize) and Caitlin Collins (Best Dissertation Prize).Congratulations to both Monica and Caitlin for their excellent performances. As part of her MPH thesis this summer, Monica Koo looked at the association between access to primary care and emergency admissions for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs) across GP practices in England. Extended opening hours was used as a novel measure of access, alongside components of the GP Patient survey. Under the supervision of Chris Millett, Susan Hodgson and Tom Cowling, she found that practices with more positive patient perceptions and experiences of access had fewer emergency ACSC admissions. In comparison, the number or type of extended opening hours (early morning, evening or weekend) was shown to have no significant association with the rate of emergency admissions at practice level. The study indicated the potential of the GP Patient Survey as a measure

I'd like to welcome our new MPH students to the 2013-2014 MPH Programme. You can find information about  You can keep up to date with MPH developments via this blog and also through my twitter feed  @azeem_majeed . The first MPH session is at 9-30 on Monday 30 September 2013 in the Rothschild Lecture Theatre at St. Mary's Hospital. 

To launch the new academic year we are pleased to announce a special lunchtime lecture from Dr Rosalind Stanwell-Smith. All staff and students are welcome. A Modern History of Public Health in the UK Dr Rosalind Stanwell-Smith MB BCh, FRCOG, FFPH, M.Sc, DHMSA, HonFRSPH Tuesday 1 October 12.30 -13.30 Cockburn Lecture Theatre, 2nd Floor, St Mary's Hospital Campus. London W2 Dr Stanwell-Smith trained in medicine, epidemiology and public health, serving in consultant posts at district and national level and has conducted epidemiological studies in reproductive health and infectious disease.  Her water and sanitation research has gained awards, most recently for a historical dissertation on public toilets, which she finds always produces smiles – but feels the lack of these facilities is no laughing matter.  She now works independently, including advisory appointments to water companies, deputy editor of a public health journal and an honorary senior lectureship at the London

There are some websites that offer advice for the MFPH Part A Examination. http://www.edmundjessop.org.uk/ https://www.eoedeanery.nhs.uk/medical/page.php?page_id=93 http://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/ http://www.phorcast.org.uk/ There is also information on the FPH Website . Dr Edmund Jessop has a good range of material on his website and also runs a course to prepare candidates for the exam.

The presentation of projects from students from the 2012-2013 MPH class will take place on Thursday 19 September 2013 The project titles are: Patterns of uptake of HIV testing in Sub-Saharan Africa in the treatment era Impact of partial efficacious vaccines for influenza A Mathematical modelling of HIV Influenza vaccination and major adverse cardiovascular events in people with and without diabetes: a large retrospective cohort study Cost effectiveness analysis of using a new rapid immune system test to streamline pathways for treatment  for patients with HIV Tracking the transmission of MRSA in hospitals via antibiotic resistance profiles and analysis of patient movement in space and time Investigating disease-associated mutations in pathogen genomes: a statistical approach Primary health care oriented health systems  and health outcomes Culturally appropriate health educational interventions among ethnic minority groups with type 2 diabetes in the UK: a systematic review.

1) We have agreed that students can get permission to get the same administrative rights on their laptops as staff members do. Advantage: easier for students to install Stata packages and R packages & run Stata more efficiently Disadvantage: Laptops are then more susceptible to viruses, despite antivirus programmes. Please note that if your laptop encounters such problems, your laptop may need a complete re-install and you might lose documents on your c-drive! Please contact the IT service desk if you want to get the same administrative rights as staff members do. Also read the important note on the bottom of this email. 2) We advise you to run Stata with the dataset you are using stored on your c-drive. You can store do-files and run them from anywhere you like. To do this, you need to ask for extended administrative rights (see point 1). Also read the important note on the bottom of this email. 3) The wireless network within the building has been improved, which will

The Department of Primary Care and Public Health hosted a visit from Professor Yao and colleagues from the First Teaching Hospital, Xinjiang Medical University. Xinjiang is located in far west region of China, adjacent to several middle Asian countries. It faces a number of health challenges, including a rising prevalence of risk factors from diseases such as diabetes and coronary heart disease, Professor Yao led a group of 12 senior staff who visited the department of 24 June 2013. The aims of the visit were to discuss collaboration in a range of areas, including: healthcare management, workforce training and development, diabetes prevention and management, medical imaging, translational medicine, and a PhD exchange programme. During their visit, they met a number of senior staff from the department, including Professor Azeem Majeed and Professor Salman Rawaf.

The Department recently hosted a delegation from the Brazilian Ministry of Health's Secretariat for Health Professional Training and Management. The delegation, led by Vice-Minister Fernando Menezes met with Dr Graham Easton, and two Honorary Clinical Research Fellows, Dr Stephanie Lewis and Dr Ashwin Anenden, to discuss Foundation and GP Specialist Training in the UK. Dr Matthew Harris led and organized the session on behalf of the Department of Health, which has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Brazilian Ministry of Health to exchange technical expertise across a wide range of health-related activity. Vice-Minister Menezes described the training programmes as comprehensive and impressive, and thought it would be very helpful in exploring the potential to develop similar approaches in Brazil.

In the first  study  of its kind, former MPH student Dr Richard Pinder and colleagues found that hospitals in England with lower mortality rates were more likely to have members of staff satisfied with the quality of care they provide. The findings suggest that staff satisfaction could be used as an early warning system to help spot more serious institutional failings, reported  The Daily Telegraph . "If you want to choose between two hospitals, knowing that 98 per cent of doctors and nurses working there would recommend their hospital, compared with 60 per cent elsewhere is a useful thing to know," said Dr Pinder. The study was published in the journal  BMJ Quality & Safety .

Countries across the Eastern Mediterranean Region face unprecedented health challenges, and are buffeted by demographic change, a dual disease burden, rising health costs, and the effects of ongoing conflict and population movements – exacerbated in the near-term by instability arising from recent political upheaval in the Middle East. However, health agencies in the region are not well positioned to respond to these challenges because of a dearth of good quality health research. An article published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine by MPH Tutor Professor Salman Rawaf presents an assessment of the current state of health research systems across the Eastern Mediterranean based on publicly available literature and data sources. The review finds that – while there have been important improvements in productivity in the Region since the early 1990s – overall research performance is poor with critical deficits in system stewardship, research training and human resource de

An article in the BMJ on Lord Nigel Crisp's Reverse Innovation conference held in April featured Dr Matthew Harris, an academic clinical lecturer in the Department of Primary Care & Public Health at Imperial College. In the article, Dr Harris noted the “effective” model of primary care support provided by Brazil’s lay “army” of 250 000 community health workers might be adapted for use in the UK. He also said the locally recruited workers had played a big role in Brazilian cities and rural areas, providing extensive support to households, such as sexual health, nutritional, and lifestyle advice and monitoring population health. Dr Harris, who heads a collaboration that is planning to test the feasibility of such an approach for use in north Wales, said that implementing such “reverse innovation” could be a “game changer for the NHS” if successful. Dr Charles Alessi, who chairs the National Association of Primary Care and NHS Clinical Commissioners, said, “The north Wales exp

Statistical advice for MPH summer projects is available from Dr Saiful Islam , Research Associate in Statistics in the Department of Primary Care & Public Health.

On 10 May 2013, I examined the mini-project presentations from the 2012-13 group of MPH students. There were a range of excellent presentations covering areas such as alcohol, hypertension and neglected tropical diseases. The presentations are listed below. Tahania Ahmad Using village theatre to promote hand washing with soap in rural Bangladesh Sayako Akiyama Office based blood pressure monitoring program for undiagnosed hypertension in Japan Elizabeth Allen A paired, cluster randomised control trial: An intervention to improve point-of-care diagnosis in the Toronto district of Southeast Uganda Nourah Alomair Detection of hypertension in Saudi Arabia: A screening and awareness programme Luis Alves de Sousa Wolbachia -based Entomological intervention to control Dengue in Madeira's Island Fatima Atiku Abubakar Lassa Fever: An educational intervention using fait

On Thursday 2nd May 2013, Professor Dermot Kelleher, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, attended a symposium to mark the second anniversary of the launch of Imperial College London's School of Public Health (SPH). Programme  15.30-15.50         Introduction and Overview of the School of Public Health                                 Professor Elio Riboli 15.50-17.00         SPH Showcase                                 Departmental speakers will highlight research and other School activities                                 Mr Anthony Laverty, Research Assistant, Primary Care and Public Health                                 Dr Ilaria Dorigatti, Research Associate, Infectious Disease Epidemiology                                 Dr Benjamin Lehne, Research Associate, Epidemiology and Biostatistics                                 Dr Ajay Gupta, Clinical Research Fellow, Imperial Clinical Trials Unit                                 Dr Julia El-Sayed Moustafa, Research Associate

From 16 -19 April 2013, a team from the National Healthcare Group in Singapore visited Imperial College to learn more about the NW London Integrated Care Pilot. A copy of the programme is appended below. The visit was hosted by Dr Josip Car and his team. Dr Car is an executive physician-scientist combining the roles of a Director of Global eHealth Unit at Imperial College, Director of Public Health and Primary Care at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and a practicing general practitioner. He serves in a range of other roles including as a co-director of the London (NW) NIHR Comprehensive Local Research Network, a lead director for the new Imperial GP Specialty Training, a research and primary care editorial adviser to the British Medical Journal, Board Member of Journal of Global Health; an Editor of the Cochrane Collaboration, and a member of the core group for the NW London NIHR CLAHRC. Day 1: Tuesday 16 th April 2013 Location: MWB Vict