University of Manchester
Programme Details
The University of Manchester and Health Education North West (North West) have 1 Academic Clinical Fellowship (ACF) in Intensive Care Medicine to start in post in August 2016.
The Fellowship is for up to 3 years and the Fellow will spend 75% of the time on clinical work and 25% on research. The programme will be tailored to the trainee’s needs and ensure enough time to achieve all required competencies. They will receive an NTN in Intensive Care Medicine and will join the North West Intensive Care Training Programme.
Research component of the specialty specific programme
The ACF (depending on their prior research experience) will undertake the University of Manchester MRes programme or modular research training options to advance their research and critical appraisal skills. The ACF will apply this learning in an area of interest as part of protected periods of full time research. The timing of the research blocks will be designed such that the ACF can develop both research and clinical competencies and will be coordinated jointly by the Academic Programme Lead (Dr Paul Dark)) and Training Programme Director (Dr Ken McGrattan) and guide the trainee to submission of a competitive application for an externally-funded PhD.
The major areas of research include:
(i) Life-threatening infection (sepsis) in Intensive Care: an established programme of work, underpinned by infrastructure and grants from NIHR and Innovate UK, providing collaborative R&D and Health Technology Assessment of novel molecular diagnostics aimed at rapid recognition and diagnosis of infection and acute systemic inflammation in critically ill patients. Early impact from this work is currently feeding into 2 diagnostic appraisals at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. New collaborative opportunities also exist to explore mechanisms of tissue injury related to sepsis and acute systemic inflammation as part of human whole organ perfusion models aimed at developing new drug pipelines with industry (www.mccir.ls.manchester.ac.uk/research/recoveryandrepair).
(ii) Patient Safety in Intensive Care: an established programme of work, underpinned by funding from UKRC, Marie-Curie FP7 and NIHR i4i, developing and translating novel techniques to monitor patient safety at the point-of-care during long term mechanical ventilation
(iii) Tailored antimicrobial therapy (precision medicine) in Intensive Care: an established programme of work, established with funding from MRC, aimed at understanding the most effective delivery strategies for antimicrobial drugs in Intensive Care which has led to new grant income from NIHR to translate strategies to an interventional clinical trial focused on healthcare associated pneumonia in Intensive Care.
(iv) ‘Big data’ research in Intensive Care: Collaborating with North West eHealth and MRC’s Farr Institute at Manchester (www.herc.ac.uk), providing opportunities to link and analyse hospital, community and laboratory patient records specifically in understanding antimicrobial burden in Intensive Care and its association with hospital and community pathogen resistance phenotypes. We are also developing a broader interest in the interaction of Intensive Care Medicine and chronic disease trajectories in the setting of both sepsis and trauma.
Clinical component of the specialty specific programme:
The clinical components of the ACF programme will take place flexibly alongside non-academic colleagues, with the delivery of identical competencies for all trainees in Intensive Care during the first 3 years. However, academic trainees will rotate between the three academic Intensive Care Units in Greater Manchester so as to take full advantage of the interface between clinical and academic practice. This flexible model will also facilitate the delivery of an MRes degree at the University of Manchester during the ACF programme.
Host Institution (University of Manchester)
Manchester’s Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC) provides the key strategic link between the University of Manchester and local partner NHS teaching hospitals. As part of the Acute Care and Trauma Theme (led by Dr Dark), the 3 academic Intensive Care Units in Greater Manchester have developed a strong collaborative network, delivering leading performance metrics in clinical trials for the NIHR and in developing academic careers via competitive personal funding from MRC and NIHR. The regional training scheme in Intensive Care has a strong track record of supporting academic training flexibly, and welcomes the opportunity to ACF posts as an important route for trainees towards externally funded Clinical Research Fellow positions and subsequent Cinical Lectureship posts as evidenced by the success of our current academic Faculty in the NW in Intensive Care.
Innovative / interdisciplinary / new research approaches in this area
Our basic science, experimental medicine, clinical trials and health services research portfolio is strongly aligned to the DoH’s current strategy on Antimicrobial Resistance as Intensive Care is a proven arena for patient antimicrobial exposure and a common setting for multi-resistant pathogens. In addition, one of our biggest public health challenges, as delineated recently by the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman, is in the rapid detection and adequate treatment of life-threatening sepsis, which links directly to our clinical research focus in Intensive Care Medicine. Therefore, trainees will have the opportunity to develop both speciality-specific and cross-cutting research skills of great relevance to the practice of Intensive Care and to develop sustainable academic careers linked to likely NHS challenges and priorities over the next decades.
Contact
Academic Lead: Dr Paul Dark
Reader and NHS Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine
Institute of Inflammation and Repair, University of Manchester
Intensive Care Unit
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
Salford M6 8HD
0161 206 4718
Training Programme Director/Head of School: Dr Kenneth McGrattan
Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Royal Preston Hospital
Sharoe Green Lane
Fulwood, Preston, PR2 9HT
01772 716565
Kenneth.McGrattan@lthtr.nhs.uk
Recruitment Helpdesk: Helpdesk.Recruitment@pat.nhs.uk or 0161 604 5553
Applicants wishing to find out more about the relevant clinical training programme(s), should go to the Specialties Schools page and click on the link(s) for the relevant clinical training programme(s).
Last updated: 7th October 2015