NIAA eNewsletter: November 2013
Academic Trainees
Introduction to Academic Anaesthesia
An inspiring Introduction to Academic Anaesthesia course, organised by the NIAA's Academic Trainee Coordinator, Dr Ramani Moonesinghe, was run in partnership with the London Deanery on 9-10 September. The course was fully booked and attended by around 80 trainees. A drinks reception, held at the RCoA on the Monday evening, provided the perfect opportunity for trainees to mingle after the day's lectures and to meet members of College Council. Feedback from the event was positive and trainees from outside London left wanting to hold similar courses regionally.
Online Resources
The NIAA is working to increase its online resources for trainees. Please see the trainee section of the NIAA website which provides links to online educational tools and downloads which we hope will be helpful.
Remember that you can also use the NIAA's Researchers' Database if you are trying to locate a supervisor in your area or are looking to network with colleagues working in similar fields. Click here to register.
National Trainee Survey on Research During UK Anaesthesia Training
Please find details of this survey on the NIAA website and complete if you have not already done so. The results will be used to inform the NIAA's trainee strategy.
Trainee Research Activity
Dr Ramani Moonesinghe is compiling a brochure of trainee research activity across the UK which will be available at the end of the year on the trainee pages of the website. A report from Dr Moonesinghe on the NIAA's academic trainee strategy will be published in the January edition of the Bulletin.
NIAA Grants
BJA/RCoA Basic Science Fellowship 2014
The British Journal of Anaesthesia and the Royal College of Anaesthetists will be awarding a Basic Science Fellowship in the spring of 2014. This grant will be for up to £250,000 over 4 years (reviewed after two years). It is intended as a stable funding platform for an individual basic sciences researcher who is looking towards major Research Council, NIHR or charity funding in the foreseeable future, and who has not yet achieved Professorial status. Applications will be considered from all non-professorial grades of staff including clinicians and non-clinicians. Please click here for further details.
NIAA Funded Study
We were delighted to hear Professor Irene Tracey, Director of the Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain, being interviewed on Radio 4's Today programme recently regarding a study on perceptual awareness during anaesthesia. The study, funded by the MRC, the Wellcome Trust, the International Anesthesia Research Society and the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia (through a BJA/RCoA award), has been published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. Further details can be found on the NIAA website.
Other Funding Opportunities
AAGBI Undergraduate Essay Prize/ Wylie Medal
The Wylie Medal will be awarded to the most meritorious essay on anaesthesia based on the theme of "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" written by an undergraduate medical student at a university in Great Britain or Ireland. Prizes of £500, £250 and £150 will be awarded to the best three submissions. The overall winner will receive the Wylie Medal in memory of Dr W Derek Wylie, President of the AAGBI 1980-82. The closing date is Monday 6 January 2014. Please click here to apply and to read examples of previous winning essays.
AAGBI Undergraduate Elective Funding
All medical students in Great Britain & Ireland are eligible to apply to the AAGBI for funding towards a medical student elective period. Preference will be given to those applicants who can show that their intended elective has an anaesthetic, intensive care or pain relief interest. Up to £750 may be awarded. Please visit the AAGBI website to apply for elective funding.The closing date for entries is Monday 6 January 2014.
HSRC
Anaesthesia Priority Setting Partnership
The NIAA is currently engaged in an anaesthesia priority setting partnership, led by the HSRC in collaboration with the James Lind Alliance. The exercise will survey the funding partners of the NIAA, alongside selected patient groups, in order to identify the important new research directions in anaesthesia and perioperative medicine. The exercise will last approximately 18 months and more details can be found on the NIAA website.
QuARCs
The HSRC continues to establish a network of local Quality Audit and Research Coordinators (QuARCs) within every Trust to be a single point of contact for national audits, quality improvement projects, multicentre research and other academic issues. The HSRC has recently issued a newsletter to all registered QuARCs by email, detailing current and upcoming HSRC activity, the preliminary results of a survey into the use of perioperative indicators in NHS services, and an agenda for the first Research and Audit for Quality Improvement Day. If you are a QuARC and have not received this communication, please contact the HSRC Administrator via our website.
Sprint National Anaesthesia Projects (SNAPs)
SNAPs will provide a 'snapshot' evaluation of activity and patient centred outcomes that should be important to both patients and anaesthetists. SNAP-1 will involve a one-week evaluation of patient reported outcome after anaesthesia; specifically, patient satisfaction and patient reported awareness. For more information on these new projects, please see the SNAP page on the HSRC website.
Patient & Public Involvement in Research
For some time now it has been considered good practice to involve patients and the public in research, as this involvement can lead to the development of more relevant research questions. Many funding bodies, such as the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), now ask if patient and public involvement has been part of the research process. The HSRC's success in partnership working on major grant applications has led to an increased and unmet need for PPI. This has resulted in the formation of a Working Group which has been set up to provide patient and public involvement to support researchers in anaesthesia and perioperative medicine. Initially the HSRC will only be able to offer a limited service to researchers at the planning/design stage of a research grant application. This is likely to be in the form of commenting on research proposals or draft applications and commenting on draft information aimed at patients/the public. Please click here for further information.
National Audit Projects
NAP4
If you have not yet completed the Post NAP4 National Survey of Airway Management, please do so by clicking here. The deadline has been extended to 25th November 2013.
Airway Leads
The first Airway Lead Day was held on Thursday 26th September. It was a great success and we would like to thank everyone who attended and contributed to the discussions. We are still compiling a list of Airway Leads following the endorsement of the leads by the RCoA and long-standing recommendation of the DAS that every department should have one. We are pleased to report that 70% of hospitals now have an Airway Lead. If you are an Airway Lead and have not yet confirmed your details to us, please do get in touch.
NAP5
Thank you to the NAP5 Local Coordinators and everyone who has assisted them in completing the recent NAP5 Anaesthetic Activity Survey. This has been a great success and is integral to the NAP5 project.
NAP6
The topic for NAP6 is Perioperative Anaphylaxis. We will be recruiting for a Clinical Lead for NAP6 in January. Please look out for an advert in the January issue of the Bulletin.
National Emergency Laparotomy Audit
The National Emergency Laparotomy Audit (NELA) is part of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme (NCAPOP), overseen by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP).
Year 1 comprises of an Organisational Audit. Using an online web tool organisational audit data collection began in July 2013. This was concluded in October 2013 with 191 out of the 192 registered hospital sites completing the audit. The project team are now carrying out data analysis with the first report due to be published in May 2014.
Year 2 comprises of Patient Audit Collection. The first year of patient data collection will commence on the 1st December 2013. The inclusion and exclusion criteria have been identified and the project team are currently undertaking a pilot to finalise the dataset for the audit. Data will be collected using an online web tool. Participating hospital sites are being provided with further information and this can be found on the NELA website.
Anaesthesia Heritage Centre
The Anaesthesia Heritage Centre is a unique resource for research into the history of anaesthesia and contains the Association's archives, the Anaesthesia Museum, a rare book collection and is open to everyone. The new temporary exhibition Out of Our Comfort Zone: Providing Pain Relief in a Crisis explores the work of doctors, and especially anaesthetists, treating injuries caused by wars and terrorist attacks. As well as showing the development of pain relief during a crisis since its first use in 1847, the exhibition also features a special display on the 7/7 London bombings with an interview from an anaesthetist who treated casualties from Edgware Road.
