Portsmouth Hospitals Healthcare Science Conference 2016

By Sam Barnes, Radiotherapy Physics Trainee

The 2016 Portsmouth Hospital NHS Trust (PHT) Healthcare Science Conference took place on 11 May.

The conference was held to provide an opportunity for scientists working in departments across the Trust to present their work and research, to promote interdisciplinary collaboration and to raise awareness of the contribution of healthcare science disciplines to patients and to the hospital.

Trust CEO Ursula Ward opened the conference, speaking of the ‘very significant contribution’ of healthcare scientists to the patient experience. Twelve presentations and eight posters were featured at the conference, with subjects ranging from clinical audit, service improvements and case studies. Abstracts were submitted from a wide range of scientific disciplines; departments represented at the conference included neurophysiology, the cardiac investigation unit, microbiology, clinical biochemistry, audiology, medical photography, nephrology, radiotherapy physics, translational research and nuclear medicine physics.

The invited speaker was Dr Tim Brooks CBE, Clinical Services Director at the Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory (RIPL) at Public Health England. Dr Brooks gave a talk on the recent Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone and the UK’s involvement in the international response to the crisis, with particular focus on the human stories behind the epidemic.

Awards for Best Presentation and Best Poster were given by Constantinos Yiangou, Associate Medical Director at PHT, who also brought proceedings to a close.

Feedback on the conference was once again overwhelmingly positive; attendees commented that it was ‘great to hear what is going on in different departments within PHT’ and on the ‘excellent keynote speaker’. Preparations for the next Healthcare Science Conference have already begun, with the aim to increase the diversity of presentations further. The date of the 2017 conference will be 10 May.

Best Presentation: Kelly Bicknell (Microbiology), 6-month Evaluation of a Frozen Faecal Microbiota Transplant service for the treatment of chron-ic Clostridium Difficile Infection

Best Poster: Tonje Skjong (University of Portsmouth/Nuclear Medicine Physics), Assessment of the shielding properties of syringe carrier boxes

Conference Organising Committee: Colin Lee, Sophie McDermott, Anne Davis, Tony Palmer, Barry Hodgson, Richard Clements, Kelly Bicknell, Christopher Blundell, Gav Alexander, Sam Barnes, and Lucy Evans

The 2016 PHT Healthcare Science Conference was kindly sponsored by Labcold, PTW, Cepheid and Phillips.