21 May 2021
Academic GP Award Winner:
Dr Samuel Seidu
What is your main area of interest, and how did that develop?
My main area of research is in diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
My research career started after CCT during which I focused my clinical
development on diabetes. In 2010, I led an implementation work on errors in
diagnosis and coding of diabetes in Leicester city. This formed part of my
MSc in diabetes at the University of Leicester. After the MSc, I became the
diabetes clinical lead and mentor in my practice and in the city of
Leicester.
I enrolled on an MD programme between 2014 to 2017 and evaluated the
effects of a multi-factorial quality improvement strategy targeted at
primary care health professionals on management of people with diabetes. I
continued my clinical development in primary care diabetes through
conferences and teaching on the “Effective Diabetes Education Now”(EDEN)
project in Leicester. This comprehensive training package which I helped
evaluate as part of my MD, aims to up-skill healthcare professionals to
provide high levels of diabetes care, reduce hospital admissions and
support appropriate referrals to specialist care. EDEN was the national
winner at the 2017 Health Service Journal (HSJ) Value in Healthcare Awards.
My MD work contributed to the implementation and evaluation of the
Leicester Model of care in diabetes.
In late 2019, I took up the post of a Clinical lecturer at the University
of Leicester.
My postdoctoral research has focused mainly on medication safety in
diabetes and cardiovascular disease in the elderly population. I have now
chaired two international Consensus Reports on the management of diabetes
in the primary care settings.
Having forged collaborations locally and internationally around the area of
diabetes, I was appointed the chair of the Primary Care Study Group for the
European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in September 2016. I
am an Associate Editor for the Primary Care Diabetes Journal. In the UK, I
am a board member of the Primary Care Diabetes Society (PCDS). I am also a
local faculty member of the RCGP in Leicester.
What does your research involve?
Using large electronic data sets to conduct observational analysis, cluster
randomised trials and pragmatic real-world studies, my research involves
work around prescribing safety, de-prescribing and medication adherence in
the elderly population with diabetes and cardio-metabolic conditions. I am
also working in the area of therapeutic inertia in people with diabetes to
understand the causes, outcomes and possible solutions. As primary care
practitioner, I am also interested in association of various common
biomarkers on important outcomes such as CVD, VTE and Type 2 diabetes. I am
also interested in how primary care teams can translate available evidence
into real patient benefit through the use of appropriate evidence-based
models of diabetes care in the community settings.
What will the RCGP / SAPC Yvonne Carter Award enable you to do?
I intend to use this award to facilitate a collaborative meeting with
fellow primary care academics abroad to help share ideas on the challenges
of combining clinical work and research in the primary care setting as well
explore the issues around management of large primary care data. The award
now offers me an opportunity to advance my career towards becoming an
independent primary care clinical research leader with a programme focus on
medication safety in diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in the elderly
population and quality improvement in diabetes care in primary care
settings. This fits well into the vision for primary care in addressing the
challenge of people living longer with multiple long-term conditions.
Diabetes management is now mainly in the primary care setting and I believe
that with my interest in the multi-morbid conditions of diabetes and
cardiovascular diseases and holding a strategic role in the Leicester city
CCG, nationally and internationally, I will be able to drive the NHS
research agenda to benefit of the people with diabetes.
Based on your experience, what advice do you have for people who are
interested in working in the research field?
Primary care research is a very rewarding career path that guarantees
maximum job satisfaction not just through exposing the researcher to the
latest evidence needed for patient care, but also through the generation of
outputs that change millions of lives. Additionally, by varying the working
week between clinical care and research, the clinical academic is less
likely to burn out. My advice for anyone interested in a clinical academic
career is to start very early as medical student, foundation trainee or
during the registrar years. During these phases of the training, if one is
lucky to have a research post, that facilitates an easier pathway along the
research trajectory. If one does not have a research training post, they
have to be willing to do the academic work outside of the usual clinical or
educational commitments. Having research outputs in the form publications
at these early stages of training puts one ahead in future fellowship
applications which are extremely competitive. For those primary care
clinicians that are post CCT, the in-practice fellowship is another route
to consider.
Primary Care Scientist Award Winner:
Dr Shoba Dawson
What is your main area of interest, and how did that develop?
My main area of research is inclusivity and diversity in patient and public
involvement and engagement (PPIE) and evidence synthesis (including the
involvement of diverse stakeholders).
My background is in Psychology. Through my first research role, I gained
first-hand experience involving patients and the public in improving
quality and patient safety through the development and piloting of various
tools, which were valuable in informing the research design and direction.
Being bilingual also enabled me to engage and work with diverse
communities. This sparked my interest in PPI, and during this time, I
became aware of the lack of diversity in PPI, which led me to undertake my
PhD in this topic area. Through my PhD, I was also introduced to evidence
synthesis research and the field of evidence-based health care. I am a key
member of the National Institute for Health Research School for Primary
Care Research Evidence Synthesis Working Group. I am keen to continue
pursuing my research in PPIE and evidence synthesis to influence policy and
practice.
What does your research involve?
My PhD involved undertaking a systematic review and a large piece of
qualitative research where I undertook 54 interviews with researchers and
South Asians (mainly those from India and Pakistan) participants. I wanted
to find out researchers’ experiences of involving people from diverse
groups in PPI and South Asian people’s experience of PPI. I have since
developed links and worked closely with local community groups to ensure
that they are involved in the research.
My main research interests lie in evidence synthesis, stakeholder
engagement in evidence synthesis and improving diversity and inclusivity in
PPIE and research participation. I am the lead author on a Cochrane
systematic review, and most recently, I have completed a number of evidence
synthesis projects to inform clinical decision making in primary care.
What will the RCGP / SAPC Yvonne Carter Award enable you to do?
My proposal focuses on working with PPI contributors from diverse community
groups to understand what primary care research priorities matter to them.
This will involve hosting two events with different community groups to
identify their research priorities for primary care. These events will also
help promote other primary care research activities within the Centre for
Academic Primary Care, identify and recruit new PPI contributors and raise
awareness of participation and PPI opportunities. This work will also allow
me to strengthen existing relationships and foster new relationships with
different community groups in Bristol. Understanding these priorities will
ensure that future research on the development and testing of interventions
are responsive to patients’ needs and ultimately translating into relevant
policy and practice.
Based on your experience, what advice do you have for people who are
interested in working in the research field?
Networking is vital, so do not shy away from reaching out to people.
Network with people who not only share similar research interests
locally/nationally but also more widely, for example, organisations such as
SAPC, RCGP, NAPCRG, SPCR Schools.
Identify a mentor, preferably someone independent and, if possible, outside
your institution. This will help you when you may lack confidence in
deciding what to do next or when you may have a situation where you need
advice from someone more experienced.
Think about diverse ways to disseminate your findings (e.g., beyond
publication and academic conferences). Think about public engagement
events, work with PPI contributors to produce a lay summary, which can be
shared via social media, community groups, policy research briefs (if
relevant). It is important to raise awareness about your research work as
far and wide as possible.
Academia is challenging as it is highly competitive, and you experience a
lot of disappointments, be it unsuccessful grant applications or
publications. It is important to remember that you are not alone in this
and keep trying.