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Our host – Dara Ó Briain is a stand-up comedian, and television presenter, best known in the uK for hosting BBC’s Mock the Week, and in Ireland for hosting rTÉ 2’s The Panel, one of the few performers to host successful comedy shows in both the UK and his native Ireland at the same time.

He started his career in television as a children’s presenter on rTÉ whilst performing his first stand-up gigs on the Irish comedy circuit, after studying Mathematical Physics at University.  His big break in UK television came in 2003 when he became host of BBC2’s Live Floor show. This led to an appearance as guest and later a guest host of the popular news quiz, Have I Got News For You.

Other notable television work includes Three Men in a Boat, Turn Back Time, Stargazing Live, and most recently, Dara O'Briain's Science Club.

We are delighted to welcome Dara as our host for the BMJ Awards 2013, we are sure he will contribute to making the evening extra memorable!

 

Meet the judges

We are very excited to announce that Judging will commence on the 14th March 2013!

On the day, our 13 Judges will be split into 3 dedicated groups with a specialist in each field representing their primary categories. The group will then discuss the shortlisted entries from each category and make a unanimous decision of the overall winner in each.

Winning entries will be announced at a glittering ceremony on the 9 May at the Park Plaza, Westminster Bridge, London - for which bookings are now being taken.

To see who is judging the outstanding shortlisted entries this year, please click here.

Shortlist announced!

We have been completely overwhelmed with the number of quality entries we received for the BMJ Group Improving Health Awards 2013 - the shortlisting panel really has had an unenviable task of selecting the final nominees!

Click here to view the teams that have made it to the final shortlist for their outstanding and inspirational work.

How has winning the 2012 BMJ Group Award improved practice for our winners?

Excellence in Healthcare Education
     'North Western Deanery, NHS North West and Imperial College CPSSQ
      'Lessons Learnt: Building a Safer Foundation'
Since winning the 2012 BMJ Excellence in Healthcare Education Award the 'Lessons Learnt: Building a Safer Foundation' project has attracted a lot of interest. The team have been invited to present their work at the UK Foundation Programme Office (UKFPO) Foundation School Directors forum to explore spread across Foundation Training nationally.

Thanks to additional funding from the Greater Manchester Health Innovation and Education Cluster (HIEC) the team are working on a dedicated project website which will include resources to support training commissioners and providers to implement 'Lessons Learnt' in their localities.
Dr Maria Ahmed, the junior doctor who led the project says: ‘Winning the BMJ award is testament to what can be achieved when junior doctors engage in Medical Education. We know where the gaps are in our training and should take the lead in addressing them.’
The team plan to publish formal evaluation of their work soon so watch this space!

Junior Doctor of the Year   
      Dr Alexander Finlayson

Dr Finlayson won this award in 2012 most notably for his achievements in establishing MedicineAfrica, a programme offering medical students and graduating doctors in Somaliland the opportunity to receive weekly live case based education in small groups from faculties across the UK with follow up mentoring. At the time of winning, this project was then due to be developed in Palestine, Tanzania and Ghana.

Since winning the award, MedicineAfrica has been fortunate to receive grant funding enabling them to expand their programmes to teaching, mentoring and developing services in Somaliland from medical students and doctors to new cadres of health workers such as nurses and healthcare administrators. Furthermore, they have received funding to start developing a more sustainable, more robust and large scale platform which should enable them to support their other programmes through the RCPCH with Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda and also their link with Palestine and Oxford and also start to engage beyond these links.

Read more about MedicineAfrica and their work

 

Transforming Patient Care using Technology     
      Dominick Shaw, John Blakey and Andrew Fearn,
      Nottingham University NHS Hospitals Trust

“The BMJ Group Award provided welcome recognition for the current IT solutions being developed in Nottingham and for the multidisciplinary team that delivers out of hours care. Out of hours care constitutes 75% of the entire working week and has been traditionally overlooked in terms of funding and staffing, however it is fundamental in providing safe, cost effective clinical care. The award has raised the profile of this essential aspect of healthcare provision.

The award has also led to further investment by Nottingham University NHS Trust to support more widespread use of the wireless task flow system for support and specialist services such as neurology referrals. The Trust continues to collaborate with the University of Nottingham to support analysis of the rich and unique dataset created by the system. These data provide quantitative insight into the fine detail of actual practices in secondary care and thus aid workforce planning and are of significant safety, cost and academic value.

In recent months we have also engaged in several fruitful discipline-bridging collaborations to augment the data collected by the system, such as the additional of an incident reporting system and incorporation of indoor positioning data. A key development has been the use of our detailed data allied to accurate mapping in the development of a training simulation for junior doctors.

“Night Shift” is collaboration with researchers from Engineering and Computer Sciences backgrounds alongside a commercial partner. It uses video game technology to present a realistic experience that teaches skills such as task prioritization and route planning combined with tailored feedback. Our aim is to simulate the stresses, decision making pressures and environment in a hospital out of hours. Junior doctors can then be trained specifically for the challenges that being on call presents.”

For further information on the research program and products in development please contact Dr John Blakey (drjohnblakey@me.com) or Dr Dominick Shaw (Dominic.shaw@nottingham.ac.uk).

Research Paper of the Year
      Kathryn Maitland, Di Gibb and Annabelle South on behalf of the FEAST Trial Group

Winning the ‘Research paper of the year’ award was a real boost to the FEAST trial team. The results of the trial were negative (showing that fluid boluses given to children with severe febrile illness and shock lead to worse outcome), and came as a surprise to all paediatricians. Because of this the trial has attracted a lot of interest, debate and even criticism. The award panel’s recognition of the importance of trial and its quality helped spur on the efforts to make sure the results make a difference to how children in Africa are treated, to prevent unnecessary deaths.

Before winning the award, African and UK members of the FEAST team had already presented results in scientific conferences, in Africa and worldwide. Since winning the award these activities have continued, and also involved workshops and informal discussions with key stakeholders such as Medicins Sans Frontiers and the  World Health Organisation (WHO). Importantly, the trialists also recently took part in a meeting hosted by Kenya Paediatric Association in Nairobi, and attended by paediatricians from 10 sub-Saharan African countries. The meeting looked at the evidence on fluid resuscitation, including the FEAST trial and a subsequent meta-analysis. Participants strongly concluded that national and international guidelines must change in the light of the FEAST results, and they are calling on WHO to update their guidelines. Following this meeting, a group is now working on revising the Emergency Triage and Treatment Plus (ETAT+) guidelines that are used in many African countries.

The FEAST trial demonstrated that high-quality randomised controlled trials can be conducted in African hospitals without access to high-tech facilities. It also showed the importance of testing approaches that are used routinely in high-income settings before they are adopted in places with very different epidemiology and resources. The FEAST trialists have also been working with a film-maker to produce a film that uses the research as an example, to encourage more randomised controlled trials in these settings.

Healthcare Communication Campaign of the Year

Winning the Health Communication campaign meant so much to the team. It’s been a very busy year. 56 Dean Street now diagnoses 1 in 6 of the UK’s gay HIV. Last year we won the award for our HIV testing event in a local gay bar on World AIDS Day. It set a Guinness World Record. We’ve built on the success of last year’s event. The team managed to test over 250 extra people this year.

We’ve now learnt a lot about how to effectively communicate using the media  and through Twitter and Facebook. It’s really helped us to spread the important message that around 80% of gay HIV is caught from the 25% who are undiagnosed. This year’s event was covered on radio and television by the BBC, Sky and Channel 4 news. We even got a message of support from the Prime Minister in the local press!

An exciting new venue for 2013!

For the past four years, the BMJ Group Improving Health Awards have been held at the London Hilton on Park Lane.

But for 2013. with our ever-expanding numbers and an appetite for change we have decided to move to the newly established, Westminster Park Plaza Hotel.

Room bookings for the night of the Awards will be available at an extremely competitive, discounted rate. More information will be provided on the book your seats page at a later date.

We are very excited about the new venue and what it will bring to the Awards!

Take a virtual tour of the new venue

Winners of Research Paper of the Year 2011 produce more ground-breaking research

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have concluded that more bleeding trauma patients could be saved if tranexamic acid was used more widely.

The clot stabilizer drug tranexamic acid can be administered safely to a wide range of patients with traumatic bleeding and should not be restricted to the most severe cases, a study published on bmj.com suggests. Read more here

Click here to see the research that won LSHTM the Research Paper of the Year Award in 2011

 

Winner of the Karen Woo Award 2012, Dr Lucy Mathen launches a new video
 

Lucy established the charity Second Sight in response to her concern of the cataract problem in India, leading a once tint eye hopsital to be the largest facility in Bihar. Now over 50,00 blind individuals have their site restored, with teams seeking patients in the remotest areas.

Currently, Lucy has just finished editing a movie  about the existence of the eye hospital and the girls football team she has extablished there.

'Junction for having Fun' will be shown on Sunday 11 November at Islington Screen on the Green (London, N1 0NP) from 10:30 - 1pm. The screening will help to raise further money for the charity in order to aim for the 100,000 operations they would like to achieve in 2015.

An inspiring tale, the film has been completed entirely by volunteers. To find out more about how you can attend the screening please contact us, or go direct to http://secondsight.org.uk.