Academic Lead(s):
Dr Patrick White, Reader in Primary Care Respiratory Medicine
Dr Mark Ashworth, Reader in Primary Care
Dr Mariam Molokhia, Reader in Primary Care
Professor Anne Stephenson, Professor of Medical Education
School of Population Health and Environmental Sciences (SPHES)
NIHR Integrated Academic Training Academic Clinical Fellows (ACF) and Academic Clinical Lecturers (CL) in General Practice have a unique opportunity for academic and clinical training in a world-leading Academic Health Sciences Centre integrating primary and secondary care. The Department of Population Health Sciences in the School of Life Course & Population Sciences provides the focus for this integration. Community-based and public health researchers and teachers enjoy strong collaborative links across the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine and the local community. The Department comprises over 150 staff and researchers with seven professors in Epidemiology, Health Economics, Medical Sociology, Physiotherapy, Public Health, Social Sciences and Health, and Medical Education. We are highly multidisciplinary, with clinicians, social scientists, psychologists, statisticians, informaticians, educationalists and epidemiologists. In the national Research Excellence Framework 2014 (REF 2014) 86% of our performance was rated 4* and 3*, sixth in the UK. We are funded by NIHR, MRC, EU, and charities, and focus on translational research from ‘bench to community’.
In our emphasis on translational research from ‘bench to community’, research within the School is integrated with major National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) infrastructures. These include: the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRC) at Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, where the Department leads the Populations Sciences cluster; the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) South London, where the Department leads the Stroke and Public Health themes; the NIHR Research Design Service London (RDS London) in which the Department leads the RDS programme for London, and that complements a growing Research Consultancy Service; and the NIHR Clinical Research Network National Speciality Hub, that provides oversight of the need for and capacity for clinical research in nine specialty groups. Our research informs clinical guidelines and national policy in stroke, health inequalities, medical diagnosis and clinical research informatics. We have strong links with local communities that are urban and multi-ethnic.
The Division has a very strong undergraduate educational unit called KUMEC, Kings Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community. KUMEC is responsible for delivering 12% of the teaching of undergraduates in the medical school. General practice ACFs and CLs will have the opportunity to contribute to the teaching and assessment of medical students across the medical curriculum, and may undertake their academic programme within KUMEC. KUMEC also runs an iBSc in Primary Care for medical students, and there are opportunities to contribute to that programme as well.
Primary Care Research
In General Practice and Primary Care, the School supports research programmes in:
- Multimorbidity
- Long-term conditions including COPD, stroke, cardiovascular disease, and renal disease
- Large data analytics and health informatics
- Prescribing
- Medical Education
The Department hosts a unique local community database called DataNet in which anonymised demographic, clinical, and prescribing data are held on patients in all general practices in Lambeth. This database provides the basis for broad and detailed research addressing important health questions in the Lambeth community. In addition several general practice and primary care projects covering the listed themes are being undertaken using nationally representatative population records including the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), resulting in many high impact publications.
ACF and CL training
ACFs in general practice and primary care at King’s College, London will undertake clinical training in the programme run by Health Education England (London), based at the training schemes run at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust or at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. These programmes have developed outstanding innovative training posts between primary and secondary care and always attract a large number of high quality clinical applicants. ACFs will concentrate on clinical training in years one and two, usually ST1 and ST2. Links with the School will be forged in ST1/2 years when a suitable area for research will be explored and work will begin with a senior academic who will oversee a research project in each year of ACF ST3/4 posts. In ST4, emphasis will be on project completion, publications, and development of a further research fellowship application.
ACFs will increase their academic involvement as the programme progresses. In year three the post will be divided 60:40 clinical:academic and in year four 40:60 clinical:academic. ACFs will join an established primary care research programme in the School, or occasionally will join other programmes within the Faculty if they have established research experience in one of those research areas already. Each ACF will be supervised by a senior researcher in clinical or educational research. We expect our general practice academic trainees to publish and disseminate their research every year. Many have successfully obtained NIHR and charity-funded doctoral research training fellowships, NIHR in-practice fellowships, and post-doctoral NIHR and MRC research fellowships.
CLs in general practice and primary care at King’s College, London will have acquired a PhD, completed their higher professional training and received a certificate of completion of training (CCT). CLs will be employed fulltime by KCL but will be placed in a general practice where they will undertake clinical work for 50% of their time in post. CLs will develop a portfolio of work in agreement with a senior academic in general practice and primary care. They will usually join an established primary care research programme in the School. Occasionally, they will also join other programmes within the Faculty if they have established research experience in one of those research areas already. The post should lead to the acquisition of research funding, to strengthening of their publication record, and ultimately to development of an application for a post-doctoral research fellowship aimed at establishing a career as an independent researcher.