The School holds an annual competition for undergraduate medical students in memory of the eminent clinician, academic and mentor Professor George Lewith. The competition reach is beyond SPCR partners and open to all medical students from across the UK.
The prize money ordinarily pays for attendance at the three day Society of Academic Primary Care (SAPC) Annual Scientific Meeting. Since the conference was cancelled this year, prize winners received Amazon vouchers in lieu of registration fees.
Congratulations to our four winners
1st prize
Hannah Reichel from University of Warwick
Abstract: Impact of NHS England guidance on primary care prescribing of simple analgesia.
WHAT DO YOU FIND MOST APPEALING ABOUT ACADEMIC PRIMARY CARE AND WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM GETTING INVOLVED IN RESEARCH?
I was keen to pursue a project with a public health angle and this is what I particularly like about academic primary care, it truly is a multi-disciplinary field and there is such a wide variety of avenues to pursue in primary care research.
This project has given me the opportunity to experience a completely different type of research and research environment, having previously only been involved in lab-based research projects. I have gained many valuable skills, not only in terms of conducting this type of research, but also in disseminating the findings, including my first oral presentation at a primary care conference.
Highly Commended
Aman Khatter from King's College London
WHAT DO YOU FIND MOST APPEALING ABOUT ACADEMIC PRIMARY CARE AND WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM GETTING INVOLVED IN RESEARCH?
Academic primary care is vital for the improvement of medical education and updating health policies, as well as ensuring the delivery of high-quality patient care within primary care settings. I would like to continue contributing to this field, because I appreciate the importance and positive impact of innovation through research. My project on potentially inappropriate prescribing allowed me to acquire quantitative research skills, as well as improve my critical appraisal skills of background literature and of my own work. I have developed leadership skills and cultivated a supportive network of clinical researchers.
These skills will allow me to ask probing and relevant research questions in order to improve healthcare and have informed discussions with policy makers during my future research ventures. I am currently utilising these skills whilst working on two systematic reviews. One is looking at educational interventions to ensure prescribing competence in new prescribers and the second is evaluating the quality of rapid-release covid-19 articles.
Charlotte Laycock from University of Oxford
WHAT do you find most appealing ABOUT ACADEMIC PRIMARY CARE AND WHAT HAVE you LEARNT FROM GETTING INVOLVED IN RESEARCH?
I am currently in Year 5 of my medical degree and wish to pursue a career in General Practice. This is due to the continuity of patient care, the flexibility and adaptability of the career as well as the spectrum of patient cases seen daily. Academic primary care is appealing because of the way it shapes medicine and clinical practice – allowing the best patient-centred care we can give.
Taking part in the competition and the QIP has taught me that conducting research is not easy, and often requires a lot of badgering people! Overall, the experience has shaped the way I would like my career to go and has taught me a lot about working within a GP practice and how to use the extra functions of EMIS, which no doubt will be useful to me in the future.
Ben Paxton from University of Cambridge
Abstract: Fidelity of the delivery of NHS Health Checks in General Practice.
WHAT DO YOU FIND MOST APPEALING ABOUT ACADEMIC PRIMARY CARE AND WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM GETTING INVOLVED IN RESEARCH?
One thing which appeals to me about academic primary care is how it can inform evidence-based policy and clinical practice on a large scale. Through doing this project however, I've gained greater understanding of how creating that evidence-base is not a rapid process, and that recognising the limitations of the work you're doing is an important, though at times painful, part of this process.
Find out more about the George Lewith Prize: www.spcr.ac.uk/trainees/GL