The World Health Organization identifies antibiotic resistance as a global challenge so serious that it threatens the fundamental achievement of modern medicine. Looking at human use and the use of antibiotics in meat production – what can we do to stimulate research into new antibiotics and to regulate the current use of antibiotics? How does collective responsibility and its ethical implications play its part?

Part of the Hilary Term Lecture Series Health:fresh perspectives”

For further information and registration: https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/event/2524

Professor Chris Cheng is an Adjunct Professor in the Division of Vascular Surgery at Stanford, and splits his time between the medical device industry and running the Stanford Vascular Intervention Biomechanics & Engineering Lab (vibelab.stanford.edu). On the industry side, Professor Cheng has worked on several cardiovascular devices at large and small companies, and is currently CEO of Kōli, Inc., an early-stage medical device company developing a percutaneous solution to gallstone disease.

For this Surgical Grand Round, Professor Chris Cheng will present work from the VIBE Lab, which focuses on quantifying the dynamic vascular system using medical imaging. While the VIBE Lab’s research pursuits seek to add to the fundamental understanding of cardiovascular biomechanics, all of the projects are directly related understanding disease processes and improving medical device design, evaluation, regulation, and their use in clinical practice.

Professor Cheng is currently serving as an ‘Expert in Residence’ with the Medical Sciences Division.

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series, Dr Evie Kemp (lead Occupational Health consultant at the Centre for Occupational Health and Wellbeing, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) will discuss ‘When surgeons become patients: occupational health and wellbeing for doctors’.

Part of the ongoing seminar series hosted by the Oxford Medical CE Marking Forum.

Our guest speaker, Nick Tanner, will be giving a presentation followed by Coffee/Tea and networking.

Join us on our LinkedIn group “Oxford Medical CE Marking Forum”

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series, Dr Andreas Selberherr, will discuss ‘Treating a patient with multiple cancers – the endocrine surgeon’s perspective’.

Dr Selberherr is a Consultant Endocrine Surgeon at the General Hospital of the Medical University of Vienna and he is currently working with Professor Rajesh Thakker at the University of Oxford on epigenetic modifiers as therapeutic agents for neuroendocrine tumours. He completed his specialty training in general and visceral surgery in 2016 and became a Fellow of the European Board of Surgery in the field of Endocrine Surgery in 2017.

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series, Professor Tim Underwood from the University of Southampton will discuss ‘Oesophageal cancer: past, present and the future’.

Part of the ongoing seminar series hosted by the Oxford Medical CE Marking Forum.

Our guest speaker, Anne Jury (Medical Technologies Regulatory Affairs and Quality Management Consultant), will be giving a presentation followed by Coffee/Tea and networking.

Join us on our LinkedIn group “Oxford Medical CE Marking Forum”

Sir Muir Gray and Lucy Abel debate: Is value-based health care nothing more than health econimics re-packaged or is health economics nothing more than only one of the six contributors to value-based healthcare?

Health economics is concerned with how to allocate resources in healthcare to optimise outcomes. Health economists have developed a variety of methods to evaluate whether the cost of providing healthcare interventions is worth the benefits. In other words, whether they are good value. These are based on preferences expressed by wider society relating to the value of increasing the length and quality of life. These values can be applied to an intervention by linking them via clinical outcomes.

Value-based healthcare’s concern with technical, personal, and allocative value are defined as, respectively, whether an intervention improves clinical outcomes; whether those clinical outcomes are meaningful for patients; and whether those improved outcomes are worth the costs. In this way it covers the same core principles as health economics, while ignoring over 50 years of research in this field.

Recent attempts to implement value-based healthcare have ignored issues such as interaction between interventions and fully considering opportunity cost. As a result, value-based healthcare adds little to the existing body of research, and diverts investment from proven methods, which risks reducing the value achievable in the NHS.

Sir Muir Gray is now working with both NHS England and Public Health England to bring about a transformation of care with the aim of increasing value for both populations and individuals and published a series of How To Handbooks for example, How to Get Better Value Healthcare, How To Build Healthcare Systems and How To Create the Right Healthcare Culture.

His hobby is ageing and how to cope with it and he has published books for publish a book for people aged seventy called Sod 70! one for the younger decade called Sod 60! This with Dr Claire Parker, and his book for people aged 40-60, titled Midlife, appeared in January 2017. Other books in series on Sod Ageing are Sod it, Eat Well, with Anita Bean and Sod Sitting, Get Moving with Diana Moran, the Green Goddess. For people of all ages Dr Gray’s Walking Cure summarises the evidence on this wonderful means of feeling well, reducing the risk of disease and minimising disability should disease strike.

Lucy Abel is a health economist working within the field of primary care and is part of the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford. She collaborates with research groups to bring the tools of economic evaluation to primary care health science research.

This talk is being held as part of the Practice of Evidence-Based Health Care 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.

What if I like research but not teaching? What if I do not like any of them? What alternatives to academia do I have?

We would like to introduce the “SIU Career Sessions”, a termly round of talks focusing on alternative careers for PhD students and postdocs, which will definitely help you with these questions. Get ready to hear from experts and explore new career paths! If you are not sure what is next after your PhD or would just like to be aware of your options, these events are for you!

Our first session will focus on a promising field for PhD-level scientists: industry. In this event, attendees will have the opportunity to hear from high profile speakers from two pharmaceutical companies with different focuses: Novo Nordisk and Immunocore. The speakers will bring not only information about the attributes they seek in potential employees, but also the daily life in industry and opportunities for a successful and stable career in big pharmaceutical companies. We will also learn from their first-hand experience how they took the career transition path to industry.

Is industry for you? Come find out with us!
As always, this event is completely free and everyone is welcome.

As part of Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series, Professor Peter Silburn from Queensland Brain Institute in Australia will present “Deep brain stimulation for human brain disorders: Expanding indications and the brain machine interface”.

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series, ENT Surgeon Dr Gerald Fain will discuss “Prospective assessment of an innovative and multidisciplinary treatment protocol for chronic tinnitus”.

Professor Harriet Ritvo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Gone but not Forgotten: Coming to Grips with Extinction
5.30—7.00, Seminar Room 3, St Anne’s College

Extinction is a timely and controversial topic now, as it has been for centuries. That is not, of course, to say that the focus of contention has remained constant. At first the main question, couched at least as much in theological as in scientific terms (that is, in terms resonant with later debates about evolution), was whether it could happen. Localized anthropogenic extinctions, most famously that of the dodo, were noticed by European travelers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (the intentional extermination of undesirable animals like wolves at home did not figure in such debates). The dwindling and disappearance of more populous and widespread species, including the passenger pigeon, the quagga, and (nearly) the American bison, in the nineteenth century sparked a different kind of concern among the overlapping communities of hunters, naturalists, and conservationists, which helped to inspire the earliest national parks and wildlife reserves.

As part of the Surgical Grand Round lecture series, Professor David Cranston from the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences at the University of Oxford will discuss ‘Medicine in Art’.

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series at the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, Ms Shannon Gunawardana, Ms Kathryn Ford and Professor Kokila Lakhoo will present ‘Global Surgery: Paediatric Surgical Team’.

Ms Shannon Gunawardana (student) will talk about ‘Explore’
Ms Kathryn Ford (trainee) will speak on ‘Trainees and global surgery’
Professor Kokila Lakhoo (consultant) will discuss ‘Global initiative for children’s surgery’

The adoption of big data, machine learning, and simulation software in biology and drug discovery have allowed for rapid progress in these fields. So far these technologies have aided discoveries, but can they eventually replace human effort and experiments? We are inviting a panel of experts at the forefront of these technologies to answer this titular question, and evaluate the role of computers in the future of biology and medicine.

Time: 5:30 pm on 23rd May
Venue: Lecture Theatre B, Department of Computer Science 15 Parks Road

Limited spots available.
There will be a networking & drinks reception after the event.
As always, this event is free and everyone is welcome!

About the speakers:

Professor Blanca Rodriguez

Professor of Computational Medicine

Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Basic Biomedical Sciences

Blanca was born in Valencia, Spain, where she attended the Lycee Francais de Valencia, and graduated as an Electronics Engineer from the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain, in 1997. She then started a PhD in the Integrated Laboratory of Bioengineering supervised by Prof. Chema Ferrero and at the same time became an Assistant Professor in Electronics and Biomedical Instrumentation at the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia. During her PhD studies, she investigated the causes of extracellular potassium accumulation during acute ischaemia using a mathematical model of single cell action potential. After graduating in 2001, she joined Prof. Natalia Trayanova’s group at Tulane University in New Orleans (now at Johns Hopkins University), as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Her research focused on the mechanisms of cardiac vulnerability to electric shocks in normal and globally ischemic hearts. In 2004, she won the First Prize in the Young Investigator Award Competition in Basic Science of the Heart Rhythm Society. After spending two years in New Orleans, she joined Oxford University in August 2004, as a Senior Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof. David Gavaghan, funded by the Integrative Biology Project. From 2007 to 2013, Blanca Rodriguez held a Medical Research Council Career Development fellowship and she has also been awarded funding by European Comission, Royal Society, EPSRC, Wellcome Trust, BHF and Leverhulme Trust. She is currently a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Basic biomedical Science and Professor of Computational Medicine.

Dr. Romain Talon

XChem Senior Support Scientist

Romain joined the Structural Genomics Consortium Oxford in 2014, where his initial role was to contribute to the Diamond Light Source X-ray fragment screening facility XChem: “X-ray structure-accelerated, synthesis-aligned fragment medicinal chemistry”. He test-drove the new experiment with real-life SGC projects, stress-tested the XChem throughput and established what was required for XChem team to be open to external users. He then made sure that XChem was used as a routine experiment to carry out X-ray fragment screening at the SGC. Romain thus became an “XChem Liaison Scientist” for the SGC. Over the past two years, he has coordinated and provided his expertise in crystallography for a total 27 fragment screening campaigns at the SGC. This number includes three fragment screening projects he carried out himself. Romain moved to the Diamond Light Source synchrotron to be a Senior Support Scientist for XChem. On top of his user support role, Romain is now improving his knowledge in computational chemistry and expertise that to provide for XChem users at Diamond.

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series, Mr Bruce George, Dr Roel Bolckmans, Dr Keshara Ratnatunga and Dr Sandeep Singh from the Department of Colorectal Surgery at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will discuss ‘Preventing recurrence after Crohn’s disease surgery’.

The international Psychiatry film festival, Medfest, is back again for another year. This time, through three bespoke short films, we hope to challenge your ideas and perceptions on the concept of ‘silence’. After each showing, the film will be discussed by a panel of distinguished experts, before the floor is opened to the audience.

All are welcome to join us for this FREE event.
The showing will be followed by a complimentary wine and nibbles reception.

Our confirmed panellists include:
Professor Matthew Broome: Chair in Psychiatry and Youth Mental Health, Director of the Institute for Mental Healthin Birmingham. He has also previously been the Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Warwick and Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. His interests include the philosophy and ethics of mental health and neuroscience, early psychosis, delusions and cognitive instability.
Dr Maria Grazia Turri: A psychiatrist and theatre scholar. As a lecturer of MSc Creative Arts and Mental Health she teaches on psychoanalysis, theatre history and theories, and the intersection between psychiatry and the arts. She also works part-time as a Consultant Psychiatrist in Medical Psychotherapy in the NHS.
Dr Gerti Stegen: Director of Medical Education for the Oxford School of Psychiatry. She is also a consultant Psychiatrist in Psychotherapy.

For more information on our panellists and the films being shown visit our facebook event page https://www.facebook.com/events/2061930723857857/

The evening will start with the film Mad to be Normal, This concerns RD Laing’s unconventional approach to psychotherapy and also his equally unconventional life. It stars David Tennant, Elisabeth Moss, Michael Gambon and Gabriel Byrne and raises many important questions: What is the nature of madness? What challenges confront psychoanalysts? Are psychoactive drugs ever effective? These topics will be discussed immediately after the film by a panel of experts which will include:
Roland Littlewood ( Professor of Anthropology and Psychiatry at UCL)
Richard Bentall (Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Liverpool)
Robert Mullan (Director of Mad to be Normal)
Farnaz Arshid (GP and prison doctor who has worked with refugees/victims of torture in Sierra Leone)
Athar Yawar (has been psychiatrist for Helen Bamber’s Medical Foundation for Victims of Torture and a Senior Editor at the Lancet)
Tickets (£5) will be sold at the door.

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds lecture series, Dr Andrew Vickers from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York discusses “How do you know if you are a good surgeon? The MSKCC approach to surgical quality assurance”.

The Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences invites junior doctors and researchers who are not yet faculty, but are interested in an academic career to an informal discussion with Dr Andrew Vickers from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Professor Paul Johnson from the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences (NDS) at Oxford University will discuss: ‘Pancreatic Islet Transplantation – realising the goals’.

Ms Natalie Durkin from Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Professor Kokila Lakhoo from NDS will talk about ‘Ovarian Preservation – the big freeze’.

Communication taboos surround many aspects of women’s health and wellbeing, from menstruation to menopause to sexual pleasure. This presentation will briefly discuss the historical and socio-cultural roots of such stigmas before outlining the latest research on how these taboos come to negatively impact girls’ and women’s health. Dr Weckesser will focus on her qualitative research on endometriosis as a case study for how cultural codes of silence around menstruation play a part in the delayed diagnosis of the condition. She will also discuss her STEAM-funded project, ‘The VQ: A Women’s Health, Sex and Pleasure Pop Up,’ which is an impact initiative that creates spaces and events for women to learn about, and purchase products related to, their (sexual) health.

Dr Annalise Weckesser is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Care and Health Related Research at Birmingham City University. She trained as a medical anthropologist at the University of Warwick and specialises in qualitative research on women’s sexual and reproductive health.

Mr Richard Guy, Dr Timothy Betts and Dr David Holdsworth from Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will talk about the cardiac risks associated with high altitude climbing.

There has never been such a high demand for our personal data, such that it is often said that individuals are the product, not just the client. Using the donation of general personal data and health data in example scenarios, areas such as: the unknown element in data content; trust and trustworthiness in data custodians; and meaningful public engagement, will be explored. The alternative is that data are not used, with the corresponding harms this may bring. Ironically, this is not an unusual situation in settings where having adequate data on which to base decisions is paramount for individual well-being. By drawing upon an international case study of health data non-use, it will be shown that this is a complex, global problem with multiple explanations resulting in untold harms to individuals and society. But there are many scenarios where our personal data are in demand, not just for public good. As individuals we need to consider the bioethical balance between individual autonomy, personal exploitation and social responsibility in making our donation decisions. Ultimately, the question is whether we, as individuals and society, want to ‘gift’ our data in some circumstances and grant its use under licence in others; and whether we can really make informed choices with the panoply of issues that may influence our decisions.

Kerina Jones is an Associate Professor of Health Informatics at Swansea University, where she is the academic lead for Information Governance and Public Engagement to ensure data protection and maximise socially-acceptable data utility across the various Swansea University-based data intensive/linkage initiatives, including: the SAIL Databank, Administrative Data Research Centre Wales, Farr@CIPHER and the recently awarded HDRUK collaboration between Swansea University and Queen’s University Belfast. Kerina leads the active Innovative Governance working group of the Farr Institute, which works collaboratively to advise and influence the developing data governance landscape to promote the safe reuse of data. She leads an IG research programme including work to inform cross-centre research and how emerging data types, such as genetic data, can be used in conjunction with health record data. This includes a programme of public engagement and Kerina enjoys working with the public on the use of anonymised data for research.

Breakthroughs using gene therapy and gene editing are regularly in the news, but did you know that viruses are being re-purposed to treat cancer? How can genes be used to treat blindness, Parkinson’s and haemophilia?
PROFESSOR DEBORAH GILL reviews some of the less-publicised advances being made in her field of medical research.

As part of the Surgical Grand Round lecture series hosted by the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, Miss Renata Greco (Senior Aortic Fellow for the Complex Aortic Surgery Team at the Oxford Heart Centre), will discuss ‘Personalised External Aortic Root Support: the Oxford experience’.

As part of the Surgical Grand Round lecture series hosted by the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, Mr Hamish Dibley (Senior management consultant and healthcare lead with Capgemini Invent) will discuss “Achieving the Holy-Grail: The Humanising Healthcare Methodology”.

This talk explores a new and refreshing approach to how we understand and improve healthcare systems. Hamish Dibley, outlines his alternative approach to realising better healthcare services at less cost. It begins with looking at healthcare not from a conventional activity perspective but from a person-centred one.

Abstract

The NHS must change the way it operates to effectively meet future challenges. The starting point for improved services at less cost rests on more intelligent use of data to inform future performance improvement through system and service redesign.

Hamish Dibley will talk about his work in applying genuine patient-centred principles to healthcare analysis and service design. This alternative approach – The Humanising Healthcare Methodology – to realising better healthcare services and less cost begins with looking at healthcare not from an activity perspective but from a person-centred one. Unlike existing practice, the work establishes time-series data to interpret the true nature of person demand for acute services, to better understand the root cause(s) of service challenges facing commissioners and providers alike.

Understanding patient demand is the first step in arriving at intelligent system and service redesign solutions around patient cohorts. This informs a more integrated and preventive system that will successfully alter the nature and consumption curve for care and reduce costs across the system.

This radical and elegant approach provides for innovative thinking as to how to propose future improvement schemes, not only to reduce patient demand but also to better respond to, and therefore manage, such demand. This latter aim requires proof of concepts to test new approaches and processes with a small cohort of patients.

This work serves to inform and constructively challenge current cost and quality improvement programme plans, as well as provide the basis for healthcare integration. Moreover, this way of working provides a better approach to overcoming the principal performance challenges facing all healthcare economies – A&E breaches, delayed transfers of care, and waiting time lists for planned care.

How are big data, machine learning, and AI currently transforming drug R&D? We’re pleased to invite Dr. Chris Meier to speak on this exciting intersection of science and technology.

Dr. Meier is one of the leaders in the Boston Consulting Group scientist network. He has worked extensively in the fields of digital development, data integration, and big data in pharma drug discovery. He has aided the development of precision medicine strategies, including biomarker discovery and development, and the integration of therapeutics with diagnostics.

Join us for what’s sure to be a fascinating talk on the future of medicine!

As always, this event is free and open to the public! A networking session including refreshments will be offered after the main event.

As part of the Surgical Grand Rounds, hosted by the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences at the University of Oxford, Dr Simon Lord (Senior Clinical Researcher in Experimental Cancer Therapeutics and Honorary Consultant in Medical Oncology) will discuss ‘Metformin’s effects of breast cancer metabolism’.