Research and Development Conference hailed a huge success

Sarah Parker
Authored by Sarah Parker
Posted: Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - 11:03

“Feeling very inspired” was one of the comments made by a delegate at this year’s Research and Development Conference.

In its fifth year, the Research and Development Conference was held at the Postgraduate Medical Centre on Friday 17 June. More than 180 healthcare professionals and academic researchers from across the south west heard from various research teams at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust and our research partners.

This year’s conference looked at research from the patients’ perspective, whilst also looking at current research and innovation ideas. Delegates heard talks from a variety of speakers, including Chairman of Myeloma UK and patient representative, Judy Dewinter, and our academic partners, including Professor Adrian Taylor, Professor of Health Studies at Plymouth University and Dr Rupert Jones, Senior Clinical Research Fellow for the Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry.

In addition, there were talks from Trust colleagues; Professor Simon Rule, Associate Medical Director for Research and Development, Dr Bill Gibson, Registrar Genitourinary Medicine, Dr David Bunting, Registrar in Upper GI Surgery, Dr Cath Ward, Consultant Anaesthetist, Andrea Carpenter, Team Leader of the Specialist Mechanical Workshop, Catherine Harden, Research Team Leader.

Dr Helen Neilens, Research Advisor at Plymouth Hospitals, said: “We are absolutely delighted with how well the conference was received – it lived up to expectations and more. One of the many highlights of the conference was our keynote speaker, Judy Dewinter, who gave a very inspiring talk on her experience as a patient and as the Chairman of Myeloma UK.

“The Research and Development Team would like to thank everyone who was involved and who attended the event.”

Feedback provided after the event included:

“Inspiring and diverse; interesting range of topics delivered expertly.”
“It was excellent.”
“Great opportunity to observe first-hand the great research being undertaken at PHNT.”
In addition to the conference, 28 posters were presented by researchers from organisations across the peninsula, which were judged by Andy Barton and Paul Ewings from the Research Design Services.

The winners were:

Runner up of poster competition3rd Place – Lucy Pritchard

Investigation of the relationship between age, gender, Body Mass Index (BMI) and Bone Mineral Density (BMD) as assessed by Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) in newly diagnosed patients with coeliac disease (CD)

Authors: L.Pritchard, S.Wilson, J.Griffin, G.Peace, S.J.Lewis

2nd Place – Ashwin Dhanda

Validation of a novel bioassay to predict survival in patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis

Dr Emily Williams, School of Clinical Sciences, University of Bristol

Dr Madeleine Stimpson, School of Clinical Sciences, University of Bristol

Prof Matthew Cramp, South West Liver Unit, PHNT

Dr Doyo Enki, Biostatistics, Bioinformatics and Biomarkers Group, Plymouth University

Dr Peter Collins, Department of Liver Medicine, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust

Dr Richard Lee, School of Clinical Sciences, University of Bristol

Dr Ashwin Dhanda, South West Liver Unit, PHNT

Winner of poster competition1st Place – Dawn Swancutt

How can hospitals safely reduce Avoidable Acute Admissions?  The 3A study

Swancutt D1, Rance S1, Benger J3, Brant H3, Joel-Edgar S2, Westlake D1, Pearson M2, Thomas D1, Holme I1, Endacott R1, Anderson R2, Allen M2, Purdy S4, Campbell J2, Sheaff R1, Byng R1, Pinkney J1.

1.            University of Plymouth

2.            University of Exeter

3.            University of the West of England

4.            University of Bristol

More photos from the conference can be found here.

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