Interested in medical device regulation? Get together with experts within the University and other researchers to discuss aspects of Medical Device Regulation relevant to your innovation. You can join us online at the comfort of your own desk!

Topic: Software classification

Who should attend? People interested in bringing a medical device to the market or interested in the medical device regulation.

Joining instructions: Further instructions on how to join the Zoom webinar will be made available to you after registration of the event

Professor Carl Heneghan will talk about his involvement in Tamiflu research that led to the discovery of 170,000 pages of clinical study reports, the subsequent development of Alltrials he was involved in and the current epidemic of publication and reporting bias that plagues much of the current research evidence.

Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine, employs evidence-based methods to research diagnostic reasoning, test accuracy and communicating diagnostic results to a wider audience.

This talk is being held as part of the Practice of Evidence-Based Health Care module which is part of the MSc in Evidence-Based Health Care and the MSc in EBHC Systematic Reviews. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series, hosted by the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, Professor Michael Griffin OBE will present ‘Talking to cancer patients – do not promise what you cannot deliver’.

Professor Michael Griffin OBE became President of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 2018, when he was a Consultant Oesophagogastric surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary. He developed the Northern Oesophagogastric Cancer Unit which is now the largest in Europe and North America. A Council member since 2009, he is Chair of the Joint Committee for Intercollegiate Examinations (JCIE) and Professor of Gastrointestinal Surgery at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. His clinical and research interests have been focused on early diagnosis and radical treatment of oesophagogastric cancers. He was awarded an OBE for services to cancer health care in 2013.

Alongside our conference on 19th October, Greene’s Institute will be hosting our first public event: a special interactive keynote with Professor Henrike Lähnemann (University of Oxford). This event promises to be a fantastic exploration of one of the most important acts of translation in European history. All are welcome.

Breakthroughs using gene therapy and gene editing are regularly in the news, but how close in reality are we to them to be used to treat actual patients? Professor of Molecular Therapy and Co-Director of the Gene Medicine Research Group, Steve Hyde sorts the fact from the fiction as he discusses how viruses are being re-purposed to treat rare diseases such as leukaemia, blindness and haemophilia.

FLJS Films opens its 2019-20 programme with acclaimed director Mike Leigh’s latest film Peterloo, which, by bringing to light a little-known atrocity in Manchester 200 years ago, makes a timely comment on the repercussions and resonances of public protest.

The film depicts the nascent labour movement of the nineteenth century, as the hunger and poverty brought about by the Corn Laws (which barred imports of cheap grain from the continent) drove 60,000 peaceful protesters to Manchester’s St Peter’s Field to demand the reform of parliamentary representation.

When the demonstration was brutally put down by the cavalry, leaving 18 people dead and hundreds injured, the government moved to suppress reporting by a nascent free press, and the event has since been largely forgotten.

On the bicentenary year of the massacre, and with the current resurgence of popular demonstrations and civil disobedience over Brexit and the climate crisis, Peterloo offers an invaluable reminder of the power of political resistance.

Historian of protest Dr Katrina Navickas will give a short introductory talk on her involvement in the historical research for Peterloo and the film’s political and contemporary resonances.

Praise for Peterloo
“A full-bore assault on the amnesia of British establishment history”
Sight and Sound

“Shattering in its cumulative effect, and its relevance to these turbulent times”
Wall Street Journal

Blackwell’s are delighted to announce that we will be joined by comedian, director and writer, Richard Ayoade, who will be signing his new book, Ayoade on Top.

Synopsis

At last, the definitive book about perhaps the best cabin crew dramedy ever filmed: View From the Top starring Gwyneth Paltrow.

In Ayoade on Top, Richard Ayoade, perhaps one of the most ‘insubstantial’ people of our age, takes us on a journey from Peckham to Paris by way of Nevada and other places we don’t care about. It’s a journey deep within, in a way that’s respectful and non-invasive; a journey for which we will all pay a heavy price, even if you’ve waited for the smaller paperback edition.

Ayoade argues for the canonisation of this brutal masterpiece, a film that celebrates capitalism in all its victimless glory; one we might imagine Donald Trump himself half-watching on his private jet’s gold-plated flat screen while his other puffy eye scans the cabin for fresh, young prey.”

Richard Ayoade is a writer and director. In addition to directing and co-writing Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, he has adapted and directed Joe Dunthorne’s novel Submarine for the screen, and is the co-writer (with Avi Korine) and director of the film, The Double. As an actor he is best known for his roles as Dean Learner in Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and Maurice Moss in the Emmy Award-winning The IT Crowd, for which we was awarded a BAFTA as Best Performance in a Comedy.

This signing is free, but please do register if you plan on attending. Please note, Richard Ayoade will be only be signing his books. For more information, please call our Customer Service Department on 01865 333 623 or email events.oxford@blackwell.co.uk.

As part of the Surgical Grand Round lecture series, hosted by the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, Mr Vincent Gnanapragasam from the University of Cambridge will discuss ‘Using research to change paradigms in diagnosing and managing early prostate cancer’.

As part of the Surgical Grand Round lecture series, hosted by the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, Professor Chris Lavy from the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences will present ‘Public-private partnerships in elective surgery’.

The logic and principles behind the drive for evidence-based health care are so compelling that often the limitations of evidence go unacknowledged. Despite a strong evidence base demonstrating the health risks associated with higher body weights, and health professionals routinely instructing patients to lose weight to improve their health, the incidence of obesity is predicted to continue to rise. Calling on his research into the relationships between obesity, inequality and health, Oli Williams – a fellow of The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute – will argue that when it comes to reducing the burden on, and improving, health care a more critical approach to the way we generate, select, apply and communicate evidence is needed.

Oli Williams completed his PhD in the Department of Sociology at the University of Leicester. He was subsequently awarded the NIHR CLAHRC West Dan Hill Fellowship in Health Equity which he held at the University of Bath. He later re-joined the University of Leicester in the Department of Health Sciences working in the SAPPHIRE Group and is now based at King’s College London after being awarded a THIS Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship. His research focuses on health inequalities, the promotion of healthy lifestyles, obesity, weight stigma, equitable intervention and co-production. He co-founded the art collective Act With Love (AWL) to promote social change. The Weight of Expectation comic is one example of their work, view others at: www.actwithlove.co.uk In recognition of his work on weight stigma the British Science Association invited Oli to deliver the Margaret Mead Award Lecture for Social Sciences at the British Science Festival 2018.

This talk is being held as part of the Qualitative Research Methods course which is part of the Evidence-Based Health Care Programme. This is a free event and members of the public are welcome to attend.

In this lecture, in honour of Edward Greene, Donald Meek will describe the fascinating process of Gaelic Bible translation in Scotland and Ireland. Beginning with the standard Gaelic Bible, translated between 1767 and 1804, Donald will explain its creation, and its debts to the work of earlier translators and revisers, including the Rev. Robert Kirk of Aberfoyle (who produced ‘Kirk’s Bible in 1690), but pre-eminently to the foundational labours of the translators of the Bible into Classical Gaelic in Ireland in the earlier seventeenth century. Both the principal translators of that period – Bishop William Ó Dómhnaill and Bishop William Bedell – studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where they were trained in biblical languages by the first Master of Emmanuel, Lawrence Chadderton. By way of comparison and contrast, brief reference will be made to the somewhat different histories of Bible translation into Manx and Welsh. The lecture will conclude with some discussion of the profound influence of the Gaelic Bible on the development of modern Scottish Gaelic literature, and its enduring legacy

Join us to learn about the progress being made in biomaterials, the next generation of innovative solutions that aim to tackle current health challenges, and what it takes to start your own venture. The event will feature talks from two prominent individuals, Dr Nick Skaer (CEO of Orthox) and Dr Nick Edwards (Co-Founder of MedInnovate and Chairman of Satie8). Dr Skaer has over 25 years’ experience in life science and materials research, and 14 years as a medtech CEO, raising over £18m. Dr Edwards has over 30 years’ experience in supporting pharmaceutical companies as ex- Global Lead of Accenture’s Pharmaceutical R&D business and current Chairman of Prescient Healthcare Group. He is a Founder of MedInnovate and an investor and supporter of life-science start-ups as well as current Chairman of Satie8.

There will be a networking & drinks reception after the event.

The event is free as always. Spots are limited, so get registered today on:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-next-generation-of-medical-devices-tickets-76955848013

This is an exclusive event brought to you by the SIU in partnership with the Oxford Pharmacology Society. The application of big data and genomics in healthcare is vast, with tremendous opportunities to revolutionise current methods of diagnosing and treating diseases. Although, patient specific data is a powerful tool that can accelerate the development and translation of novel drugs and therapeutics, there are limitations to overcome. This event will take a closer look at the role of industries, academics, clinicians and healthcare policy makers in encouraging the translation of ideas into real-world solutions and the challenges within each sector. To discuss this, we will be hosting Dr Jeffrey Barrett (CSO and Director of Genomics Plc), Dr Michelle van Velthoven (Sir David Cooksey Fellow in Healthcare Translation at the University of Oxford) and Dr Amitava Banerjee (Associate Professor in Clinical Data Science at University College London).
The event will be on the 20th November at 17h30pm – 19h00, in the Department of Pharmacology. There will be a free networking & drinks reception after the event.
The event is free as always. Spots are limited, so get registered today on https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pharma-and-big-data-the-healthcare-revolution-tickets-80628276345

Mobile phone filmmaking. It’s the camera of choice for some.
Is the best camera the one you have with you?
We will welcome expert interactive filmmaker and thriller writer Nihal Tharoor (Electric Noir Studios) and former BBC Trainer Bob Walters (MediaInk TV, iphone-filmmaking).
This session will look at the potential of mobile phone cameras for low budget reasons and for those starting out, but also for more experienced filmmakers interested in producing gritty styled thrillers or entertainment for younger audiences who use the platform most. Whether you are using mobile phones for short films, pilots, showreels, documentary filmmaking or features this event offers great value – we’ll be looking at expert output, hearing from passionate speakers and offering some bonus technical tips.

Opportunities to network with local film and TV professionals after main talk

Should doctors with commercial interests lead research on their products? Should we forget ‘conflicts’ and discuss ‘declarations of interest’ instead? Who should hold and maintain conflicts of interest registers for doctors? Should practicing doctors work with the pharma industry as well as serve on guideline committees? Should researchers with extensive financial interests be disqualified from studies of their own products?

The Physician Payments Sunshine Act requires US manufacturers to collect, track and report all financial relationships with clinicians and teaching hospitals. Professor Heneghan will discuss the failings with the current system of reporting of conflicts in medicine, what’s been tried so far, and why it is time for a UK Sunshine Act.

Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine, employs evidence-based methods to research diagnostic reasoning, test accuracy and communicating diagnostic results to a wider audience.

This talk is being held as part of the Practice of Evidence-Based Health Care module which is part of the MSc in Evidence-Based Health Care and the MSc in EBHC Systematic Reviews. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

Join us for a screening of The Fly, the classic 1958 sci-fi horror movie produced and directed by Kurt Neumann and starring Vincent Price, Al Hedison and Patricia Owens. A scientist invents a teleportation device, but fate has other plans after an accident leads to a gruesome, life-changing injury. This brilliant 1950s sci-fi, famously remade by David Cronenberg in the 80s, treads a fine line between shlocky fun and an unnerving nature parable.

The screening will be preceded by an introductory with Dr Roderick Bailey, Medical Historian at the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities. Rod specialises in the study of modern war and conflict, the history of medicine, and the spaces in which those worlds overlap.

David Cronenberg’s ‘body horror’ film ‘The Fly’ is more than science fiction. The movie was based on an original story, published in Playboy magazine in 1957, whose author had been a spy in World War II. Dr Roderick Bailey of Oxford’s Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities, works on the history of human enhancement. In the Q&A Roderick will discuss how secret procedures carried out in wartime London may have shaped this disturbing creation.

‘Funny, horrible and inventive — in its own deranged way this is a classic of 1950s horror.’ Film4

‘One strong factor of the picture is its unusual believability.’ Variety

Dir. Kurt Neumann. USA, 1958. 1h 34m. Vincent Price, Al Hedison (1927 – 2019) Patricia Owens, Herbert Marshall, Kathleen Freeman, Betty Lou Gerson.

As part of the Think Human Festival held by Oxford Brookes University, a film showing of ‘Life is Wonderful: Mandela’s Unsung Heroes’ is being held. Following the showing there will be a Q&A with a panel that includes the director of the film, Sir Nick Stadlen.

Overdiagnosis is the diagnosis of “disease” that will never cause symptoms or death during a patient’s lifetime.

Recent results of the NELSON Lung Cancer Screening Trial reports reductions in lung-cancer survival but not overall survival – The desire to detect disease even earlier means Overdiagnosis is on the rise, however, the interpretation of screening trial results is problematic and often gives rise to significant uncertainties that go unanswered.

Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine, employs evidence-based methods to research diagnostic reasoning, test accuracy and communicating diagnostic results to a wider audience.

This talk is being held as part of the Evidence-Based Diagnosis & Screening module which is part of the MSc in Evidence-Based Health Care and the MSc in EBHC Medical Statistics. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

Screening of “Streetscapes” (winner of the 2017 German Critics Award) followed by Q&A.
Dr Zohar Rubinstein, clinical and organizational psychologist, specialist in mental health in emergency situations, and one of the founding members of The Interdisciplinary Master Program for Emergency and Disaster Management at the Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, will be answering questions.

In this book talk, Claas will review central findings of his research on the past 80 years of antibiotic use, resistance, and regulation in food production with introduction by Prof Mark Harrison, Director of Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities.

Mass-introduced after 1945, antibiotics helped revolutionise food production. Farmers and veterinarians used antibiotics to prevent and treat disease, protect plants, preserve food, and promote animals’ growth. Many soon became dependent on routine antibiotic use to sustain and increase production. The resulting growth of antibiotic infrastructures came at a price. Critics blamed antibiotics for leaving dangerous residues in food, enabling bad animal welfare, and selecting for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria, which could no longer be treated with antibiotics.

Pyrrhic Progress analyses over 80 years of evolving non-human antibiotic use on both sides of the Atlantic and introduces readers to the historical and current complexities of antibiotic stewardship in a time of rising AMR.

This talk includes a drinks reception and nibbles, all welcome

The Oath tells the fateful story of two men, whose loyalty to an ideal in a world of disintegrating legal, moral, and constitutional norms tests their beliefs and threatens their liberty.

Acclaimed director Laura Poitras has created a riveting documentary about Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s driver and the first man to face the controversial US military commissions that were established in response to his earlier exoneration by the Supreme Court. At the heart of the film is Hamdan’s charismatic brother-in-law, whose struggles with his conscience for having introduced him to bin Laden provide a gripping psychological portrait of guilt and the redemptive role of society.

A decade since its release, and with fault lines reopening between the Muslim world and the West, the film leads the viewer on a jihadist’s journey through Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, all the way to the US Supreme Court. Here, the complexities and contradictions of the war on terror are laid bare, epitomized in the devastating revelation behind the double meaning of the film’s title.

Praise for The Oath
“The most essential and revelatory documentary of the year”
New York Magazine

“Compelling, emotionally and intellectually complex, The Oath is an important film that raises questions we must all ask”
Film Comment

In modern high-tech health care, patients appear to be the stumbling block.

Uninformed, anxious, noncompliant individuals with unhealthy lifestyles who demand treatments advertised by celebrities and insist on unnecessary but expensive diagnostics may eventually turn into plaintiffs. But what about their physicians? About ten years ago, Muir Gray and Gerd Gigerenzer published a book with the subtitle “Envisioning health care 2020”. They listed “seven sins” of health care systems then, one of which was health professionals’ stunning lack of risk literacy. Many were not exactly sure what a false-positive rate was, or what overdiagnosis and survival rates mean, and they were unable to evaluate articles in their own field. As a consequence, the ideals of informed consent and shared decision-making remain a pipedream – both doctors and patients are habitually misled by biased information in health brochures and advertisements. At the same time, the risk literacy problem is one of the few in health care that actually have a known solution. A quick cure is to teach efficient risk communication that fosters transparency as opposed to confusion, both in medical school and in CME. It can be done with 4th graders, so it should work with doctors, too.

Now, in 2020, can every doctor understand health statistics? In this talk, Gerd Gigerenzer will describe the efforts towards this goal, a few successes, but also the steadfast forces that undermine doctors’ ability to understand and act on evidence. Moreover, the last decade has seen two new forces that distract from solving the problem. The first is the promise of digital technology, from diagnostic AI systems to big data analytics, which consumes much of the attention. Digital technology is of little help if doctors do not understand it. Second, our efforts to make patients competent and to encourage them to articulate their values are now in conflict with the new paternalistic view that patients just need to be nudged into better behaviour.

This talk will be followed by a drinks reception, all welcome

Joint event with: The Oxford–Berlin Research Partnership

With the UK population predicted to grow nearly 20% by 2050 (circa 77 million people), over 65s making up around 25% of the population and more and more demands being put on the healthcare system what does the future hold?

Professor Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, will discuss predictions for the future advancement of healthcare in the UK and how these advancements will monitor, diagnose and treat us and how this will change our healthcare system.

Part of the Oxford Martin School Lecture Series: ‘Shaping the future’

We are delighted to welcome Shakespearean actor, director, academy award nominee and anti-Apartheid campaigner, Dame Janet Suzman, to St Peter’s College.

Janet Suzman remains one of the most respected classical stage actresses of her time, having portrayed most of Shakespeare’s heroines, including Cleopatra, during her career. She has also worked alongside some of stage and screen’s most legendary stars, including Marlon Brando, Sir Laurence Olivier, Ava Gardner and Sir Derek Jacobi.

She was nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of Czarina Alexandra in Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), a sweeping historical epic about the fall of the Romanovs.

Suzman also starred alongside Donald Sutherland and Susan Sarandon in A Dry White Season (1989), a provocative drama that centres on a white schoolmaster’s gradual awakening to the horrors of government-sanctioned racism in South Africa during the 1970s.

St Peter’s College, Hannington Hall
Free to attend
All welcome

Snakebite is arguably the world’s biggest hidden health crisis. It kills some 120,000 people every year, mostly from the world’s poorest communities in rural Africa, Asia and South America. The burden of death and disability is equivalent to that of prostate cancer or cervical cancer and greater than that of any other neglected tropical disease. Yet the problem is solvable – we need to bring snakebite treatment into the 21st century; we need innovative approaches to discovering and developing next generation snakebite treatments; and we need to build and importantly, sustain snakebite as a global health priority.

Dr Nick Cammack was appointed to the Wellcome Trust in September 2019 to lead an ambitious new £80 million programme aimed at driving a step-change in snakebite treatment around the world. The goal is to achieve a 50% reduction in mortality by 2030. In addition there is a pressing need to modernise the production of anti-venoms and improve their means of delivery.

Artist, writer and activist Jess Thom has Tourettes syndrome, a neurological condition that means she makes movements and noises she can’t control, called tics. In 2010 she co-founded Touretteshero as a creative response to her experiences, and toured the world with her multi-award-winning stage show, Backstage in Biscuit Land.

Join us for a screening of the 2018 documentary, Me, My Mouth and I, part of BBC Two’s Performance Live strand. Exploring Jess Thom’s funny and unpredictable journey of discovery into one of Samuel Beckett’s most complex plays, Not I, the film asks us to reconsider issues of representation and social exclusion as she prepares to perform the role of ‘Mouth’ in front of a live theatre audience. The screening with be followed by a Q & A with Jess herself.

Touretteshero presents Not I at The North Wall from 18 – 21 March.

About Inspiring People
The Inspiring People series is a joint venture between The North Wall and our principal sponsor, St Edward’s School. Our organisation both have a mission to educate and inspire and our hope is that this series will do just that: half of all tickets are offered free to local schools

Adults make choices regarding the technology they use to self-manage their health and wellbeing, and these technologies are often adopted, used and abused in ways that researchers, manufacturers, and clinicians have not accounted for. This talk will give an overview of human-computer interaction qualitative research on the real world use of mobile technologies in people’s everyday lives. Accounting for individual health and wellbeing choices adults make with technology, supporting choices through end user customisation, and the emerging trend towards Do-It-Yourself open-source health and wellbeing technology will be discussed. Examples of pragmatic qualitative studies will be given from research on wearables, apps, and standalone devices used for Type 1 diabetes, hearing loss, baby monitoring, and physical fitness.

Dr Aisling O’Kane is a Senior Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction for Health and Deputy Director of the EPSRC CDT in Digital Health and Care at the University of Bristol. As a member of the Bristol Interaction Group and the Digital Health Engineering Group, she uses a pragmatic approach to qualitative research of health, wellbeing and care technologies. Dr O’Kane is currently PI of Innovate UK Machine Learning for Diabetes, co-designing AI to support diabetes self-management and Co-I of EPSRC SPHERE Next Steps, co-designing smart home technology to support health at home.

This talk is being held as part of the Advanced Qualitative Research Methods course which is part of the Evidence-Based Health Care Programme. This is a free event and members of the public are welcome to attend.

Join Professor Chas Bountra, Professor of Translational Medicine and Professor Sir Charles Godfray as they discuss how the healthcare system has had to adapt due to the Covid-19 pandemic and what this means in the future.

With COVID-19 vaccines on the horizon, attention again returns to the contentious topic of whether vaccination should be made mandatory.

Recent polling has resulted in worrying headlines about a lack of willingness to have a COVID-19 vaccine if it were available.

Are mandates the answer to ensure vaccine high uptake to end the pandemic? While still a hypothetical scenario, without yet having a safe and effective vaccine approved for use, this could change in the coming months. The question of introducing mandatory vaccination spans considerations of personal liberty, health decision-making, public health and policy, as well as the relationship between the state and its citizens. Join Professor Julian Savulescu and Dr Samantha Vanderslott to debate the ethical and public policy arguments for and against mandatory COVID-19 vaccination.

On the 30th November it was announced that the Artificial Intelligence computer programme AlphaFold had made a decisive breakthrough in the determination of the 3-D structures of proteins.

The announcement was immediately hailed as one of the major scientific advances of the decade.

Why is it important to understand the 3-D structures of protein, why are they difficult to construct, and what is the nature of AlphaFold’s advance? Why is this so exciting and what further advances in medicine and the other biosciences may result? To find out, join a conversation between Yvonne Jones, Director, Cancer Research UK Receptor Structure Research Group and Charles Godfray, Director, Oxford Martin School, who will explore these fascinating issues.