2016 Entry level: ST1*, ST2* or ST3
*ST1 and ST2 years will be spent in Core Medical Training.
Last updated: 7th October 2015
The Academic Environment
The Faculty of Medicine and Human Sciences has undergone a re-organisation recently with the creation of six Institutes of which Cardiovascular is one. It comprises two research centres, Cardiac and Vascular and Stroke. The intention is to build upon the UK 4thplace in RAE 2008. It is recognised as an area of research strength by the Faculty and its mission is to be an international centre for research into diseases of the heart and the circulation and has a portfolio which embraces laboratory based studies to clinical research programmes. The Institute Director has recently been appointed: Professor Keavney took up this position in April 2013 and will oversee the development of the Institute’s research and clinical activities. The research centres are led by Professors D Eisner (Cardiac) and P Tyrrell (Vascular and Stroke). Much of the laboratory based research is carried out in the University research cluster adjacent to Central Manchester Foundation Trust, but there are clinical programmes within Central Manchester as well as strong MR imaging and heart failure programmes at South Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust (Schmitt, Ray). Clinical programmes focus on genetics of childhood cardiac diseases (Keavney, Newman), hypertension and diabetes (Heagerty, Boulton, Rutter), hyperlipidaemia (Soran), cardiac electrophysiology (Garratt) and heart failure (Trafford/Kitmitto). Scientific groups investigate cardiac calcium transport in health and disease (Eisner, Kitmitto, Trafford), ion channel control of cardiac conduction (Boyett, Dobrzynski), gene therapy for coronary artery disease (Kingston, Holt) and the molecular basis of vascular calcification and angiogenesis (Canfield ).
In the last ten years, the team has secured £60million of research grant income drawn from the MRC, BBSRC, BHF, The Wellcome Trust and Diabetes UK. The group has four current programme grants. There are close collaborative links with the Cardiovascular Research groups in the Faculty of Life Sciences including Weston, Dunne, Gurney, Merry, Cielty, Edwards and the Faculty of Science (Zhang).
Most recently there has been the award of an MRC BHF Stem Cell initiative (Cielty, Canfield). The research is supported by a BHF 4 year PhD Studentship programme which has recently been renewed and the NIHR ACF and Lectureship Scheme which has also recently been reviewed and renewed.
Clinical Research Activity in Manchester
Much of the clinical research in Manchester is carried out in the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility (CRF), opened in 2001 and whose funding was renewed in 2012 for a further five years. More than 100,000 patient visits have been completed and the CRF provides state of the art out-patient investigation suites including all the equipment necessary to carry out comprehensive cardiovascular studies as well as a whole body 3T MR scanner with cardiovascular imaging capability. In-patient rooms with constant temperature and reverse airflow options allow gene therapy studies to take place to GTAC standard. It has training programmes developed in research methodology to GCP standards and statistical support and Fellows that choose clinical research options would be free to use them to augment their training.
Recently NHS trusts and university partners were granted Academic Health Sciences Centre status by the Department of Health in response to a desire across the City for a coordinated and synergistic pan-Manchester research strategy to improve the quality, relevance and impact of NHS R & D for the people of Greater Manchester. Cardiovascular Research forms one of the themes already established in this alliance and aims to form networks for region-wide studies in primary care as well as secondary and tertiary hospital centres.
NHS Training Programmes in Cardiology
The Specialist Training Programme in Cardiology in the North Western region is supervised by Dr Sanjay Sastry, and mindful that in 2-4 years may need to be in recognised diagnostic, investigational and interventional centres and that there are three of these in the region, training programmes are devised to rotate from district hospitals into and out of these centres. Presently there are twelve district centres with training supervised by 28 consultants and 26 physicians in the interventional centres. Training is provided in all aspects of Cardiology and is designed to offer a comprehensive exposure to allow StRs to pursue career aspirations in Academic Cardiology as well as sub-specialties such as Electrophysiology, non-invasive Imaging or Paediatric Cardiology. Already the programme offers opportunities for doctors who wish to train flexibly, which can be adapted to provide protected time for academic training and research. Professor Bernard Clarke provides mentoring of clinical academic cardiologists at all stages and has this role as a member of the Health Education North West (North Western) specialist training committee.
Academic / NHS Partnerships in Teaching and Research
Research is actively encouraged and there are extensive facilities to support research particularly in the interventional centres at Wythenshawe, Manchester Royal Infirmary and Blackpool Hospitals. Already time is allocated for research in all the hospitals and this may be used locally or to continue projects begun in other centres and a substantial number of academically inclined trainees leave the training programmes temporarily to go into full time research after using this protected time allocation to develop data to allow more substantial funding to be obtained.
Contact
Academic Lead: Tony Heagerty
Training Programme Director: Sanjay Sastry
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).
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