2009 Awards

BMJ Group Awards, 2009

Thursday 2nd April, 2009 saw the success of the inaugural BMJ Group Awards.  Watch video footage from this years event.

BMJ Group Award Winners 2009

Congratulations to all the winners at the inaugural BMJ Group Awards:

Research Paper of the Year  

Frank Sullivan and colleagues from the Scottish School of Primary Care

The judges were clear that Frank Sullivan and his colleagues in the Scottish School of Primary Care had produced an outstanding study. The School’s research into management of Bell’s palsy – a condition that affects mainly young adults by paralyzing half of their face – has shown that a simple, affordable, treatment can really speed up recovery.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Medical Fair and Ethical Trade Group

The Medical Fair and Ethical Trade Group was set up in 2007 in response to concerns about unfair and unethical labour practices in the manufacture of surgical instruments and textiles.

The Group’s work is ground breaking and its work has led to the publication of the first ever guidance on fair and ethical procurement in health products in the UK. The Group now hopes that the guidance will be adopted by the EU and across the world.

Health Communicator of the Year

Dr Val Curtis, Director of the Hygiene Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Saving lives is at the heart of the impressive work of Val Curtis who has managed to get a simple message out across the world – hand washing can save your life. The judges noted that Dr Curtis has reached a global audience with her message on hand washing, culminating in the first ever Global Handwash Day in October last year.

Today there are 20 countries with national hand washing programmes – a huge step forward in developing countries.

Best Innovation in Medical Communication

NHS Choices for Behind the Headlines

Behind the Headlines is an independent, evidence based analysis of medical research stories that are in the news each day.
The service helps the public and healthcare professionals understand the basis and validity of claims made in daily news reports. It also helps to stop misreported science spreading in the media.

As a result hundreds of GPs can communicate better with their patients and thousands of ordinary users are helped to understand the facts.

Best Quality Improvement

Western Renal Service at the Western Renal and Social Care Trust, Londonderry

The judges were impressed by the collaborative working between different teams, hospitals and regions by the Western Renal Service in Northern Ireland. The service improved significantly patients‘ access to treatment in rural Northern Ireland.

As a result, two of the renal units changed from being part of the worst to part of the best performing 10% of units in the UK.

Outstanding Achievement in Evidence Based Health Care

Peter Rothwell, Professor of Clinical Neurology at the University of Oxford

Professor Rothwell has pioneered developments in stroke prevention throughout his career. This award recognises his work on demonstrating the need for acute preventative treatment and now such treatment reduces the early risk of major strokes by 80%.

The  Evidence based results from his team in Oxford has led to a national and international change in clinical practice, backed now by official guidelines from NICE.

Excellence in Learning and Education

Undergraduate Medical School, University of Glasgow

The Undergraduate Medical School at Glasgow University impressed the judges with their development of an innovative “blended learning” approach to teaching senior medical students at the university. The organisers developed a web based interactive course in acute medicine that complements the university’s clinical teaching.

More than 200 medical students have already benefited from this course and continuous improvements are being made through effective evaluation of the students’ performance.

Clinical Leadership

Stella Vig, Clinical Lead for General Surgery and Trauma/Orthopaedics and Urology at Mayday Healthcare NHS Trust

Stella Vig has a passion and mission to reduce amputation rates and encourage recognition for peripheral arterial disease.

Demonstrating that her vision could indeed become real, she has led a large multidisciplinary team in running a new Diabetic, Vascular and Wound Care Centre.

Her new care model has shown a 30% reduction in major amputations over a 3 year period and greater independence for patients.

Global Leadership

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Lifetime Achievement

Professor Judith Longstaff Mackay, Senior Adviser to the World Lung Foundation

The Lifetime Achievement award goes to a tireless and courageous campaigner on behalf of patients and public health care.

Professor Mackay has been based in Hong Kong since 1967, and worked as a hospital physician until 1984.Then she started campaigning against the tobacco industry in Asia and was labelled “one of the three most dangerous people in the world” by the industry five years later.

She is a consultant to the World Health Organisation and was instrumental in developing the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which places governments under international obligation to implement tobacco control policies.

Currently she works for the World Lung Foundation component of the Bloomberg Initiative to reduce tobacco use in low and middle income countries.