Professorial Chair in
Intensive Care Medicine
Professorial Chair in Intensive Care Medicine at the William Harvey Research Institute and Barts Health
In 2023 St Bartholomew’s Hospital will celebrate its 900th anniversary. It is Britain’s oldest hospital still providing medical services.
Today, it serves a richly diverse community of around 2.5 million people in East London, as well as the large, mostly transient population of the City of London, with the Barts Heart Centre serving more than 6 million people.
Caring for this large, diverse patient population comes with significant benefits for medical research, bringing from bench to bedside new drugs and innovative treatments to meet the urgent medical needs of a population with globally-representative demographics.
As exemplified by COVID-19, disproportionately affecting ethnic-minority and deprived populations, research and development in intensive-care medicine by William Harvey Academics can have a major impact world-wide, as well as benefiting our local population and addressing well-recognised health inequalities.
This initiative will make a substantial contribution to achieving the strategic objectives of Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, the William Harvey Research Institute and Queen Mary University of London.
For these reasons, the WHRF is proud to be supporting the fundraising campaign for a new Professorial Chair in Intensive Care Medicine.
Professor Sir Mark Caulfield, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology and CEO, Barts Life Sciences
"COVID-19 has shone a light on the vital importance of intensive-care research and the potential for innovative studies to influence the course of pandemics. For example, British researchers including Barts/William Harvey academics have identified seven areas of the genome that make people more susceptible to severe COVID-19 and three of these are potential drug targets.
Much more collaborative UK genomic research into COVID-19 involving William Harvey academics is in the pipeline. Also, the UK has led the world in major trials such as RECOVERY where dexamethasone (a steroid) has been shown to save one in eight of the most severely ill patients in intensive care.
These achievements highlight the quality of Critical Care Research that is possible in the UK and the importance of building on the existing cadre of excellent academic intensivists to ensure we maintain the momentum established during COVID-19."
Professor Charles Hinds, Emeritus Professor of Intensive Care Medicine
"We believe this is the right moment to raise funds for a new Professorial Chair of Intensive Care Medicine based at St Bartholomew’s Hospital ('Barts') and the William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London ('QMUL').
The new Professor will build on the achievements of our research to date, and the unrivalled research opportunities provided by the internationally renowned bench to bedside environment of the William Harvey Research Institute, together with the clinical opportunities and scale of Barts Health."
The Professorial Chair: a durable legacy
The aim is to transform the NHS care of critically ill patients. This appointment will address a gap in intensive-care research following Professor Hinds’ retirement and will create new interdisciplinary collaborations with clinical and scientific colleagues throughout the University, as well as nationally and internationally, while also fostering established academic relationships.
The full time clinical academic post will be for an initial five years and will allow the appointment of a world-class expert with an outstanding international reputation in the field of Translational Intensive Care Medicine.
After the initial five-year term, QMUL and Barts Health will take over funding, so this initiative will establish a durable legacy, with a team of researchers who will continue to deliver world class intensive care research in one of the largest centres for Critical Care in the UK.
The vital funds needed
The overall funding requirement is GBP 1.675 million over a five year period. The NHS will contribute GBP 484,000 towards the full-time Professorial post, leaving GBP 240,000 per annum for five years or GBP 1.2m in total.
It is very encouraging that we have already raised GBP 235,000, with potential pledges in play that would double this commitment.
Contact
Professors Hinds and Caulfield would be delighted to meet potential donors. Meetings with other leaders and key individuals from Barts and QMUL can be arranged as required.
To read the full proposal, go to Case for Support
To read an interview with Charles Hinds by Cavendish Medical News, go to Interview
To express an interest and discuss next steps contact:
To make an online donation to the Professorial Chair in Intensive Care Medicine, please click Donate below.
