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The University of Southampton
Health Sciences

Health Sciences news roundup on 12th March 2015

Published: 12 March 2015

A summary of the latest news and intelligence from around the Faculty.

Drs Wendy Wigley and Julie Cullen have just returned from a visit to the University of Southampton Malaysia Campus as part of the Faculty's international strategy. While they were in Malaysia they had successful meetings with several departments of the Ministry of Health.

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Congratulations to Dr David Voegeli who is co-applicant on a successful bid to the EPSRC call for networks against antimicrobial resistance. The bid was led by Prof Tim Leighton (FEE), with an interdisciplinary team from across the University. This will fund the establishment of an interdisciplinary network to help tackle the problem of antibiotic resistance and is worth in the region of £1 million over two years.

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Congratulations to Dr Stephanie Meakin who was asked by Health Education Wessex (HEW) to Chair a group, including senior practitioners and other HEI members from HEW and HETV regions, to review quality of mentorship. The Department of Health has provided £30,000 in funding from which the group employed academic Emma Bockle as a project lead.

The results of the project work, which stems from Dr Meakins’ doctoral findings, are now launched nationwide, Dr Meakin has been asked to lead further work improving mentorship.

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Professor Peter Griffiths from NIHR CLAHRC Wessex, and the Faculty’s Chair of Health Services Research, has co-authored a piece of research looking at single rooms in hospitals. Not unexpectedly most patients said they preferred them, but nursing staff preferred a mix of wards and rooms. Interestingly single rooms seemed not to provide any major benefits in terms of patient safety, including infection control.

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Congratulations to post-doctoral clinical academic fellow, Dr Kieran Hand, and the antibiotic stewardship team at SGH, who won the Infection Control prize at the NHS Innovation Challenge Prize awards in February. The team were recognised for their smartphone application for antibiotic treatment guidelines and won £50,000 to invest in developing it into a decision-support system to promote responsible antibiotic prescribing.

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Dr Bashir Lwaleed is interviewed alongside distinguished international academics and members of the House of Lords, in Al Sharq Newspaper (p.55), a pro-government newspaper, the largest in Qatar. The piece covers aspects of Qatari government research and education support, including the Qatar Foundation, and the establishment of satellite colleges in Qatar. Further interviews on Dr Lwaleed’s cancer therapy research will follow.

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In February student BN Mental Health Nurses, Sadie Angora, Charlene Wickham, Karl Fry and D'Arcy Trow; with lecturers Rachel Lennon, Yvonne Middlewick and Andy Williams, attended the first Future of Mental Health Nursing Conference at London’s 02. Hosted by the Department of Health, the day included eminent speakers such as comedienne and former mental health nurse, Jo Brand; Professor Tony Butterworth CBE; Jane Cummings and Baroness Jolly. See #FutureMHN.

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Dr. George F. Wittenberg from the University of Maryland will be speaking at a seminar jointly hosted by Health Sciences and the Institute for Life Sciences on Friday, 20th March, 12:00-14:00 in 67/1003, including a buffet lunch. The title of George’s talk is Reaching, Robots, and Rehabilitation; Brain Activity and the Effects of Practice. All are welcome to attend! Register here by 18th March.

 

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