Bay University Health Board

Clinical Research Fellow in Cardiology Department of Cardiology

Applications are invited for the above post to start from the 1st August 2019. The post is suitable for a specialist trainee with a current training number in Cardiology. There will be no fixed in-patient or outpatient commitments and the post allows protected time for research. The candidate may however be asked to help cover the occasional cardiology clinic. There is flexibility to allow up to 1-2 clinical sessions per week. The Clinical Research Fellow will undertake research relating to cardiovascular disease within Swansea Hospitals based within the Swansea Bay University Health Board and Medical School.

The candidate is expected to register for a higher degree (MD) at Swansea University. The appointment will be for one year initially, and renewable according to progress.

Swansea Bay University Health Board is the largest in Wales, covering a population of around 400,000 people and employing 16,000 staff. It was launched on 1st April 2019, from the merger of the former Swansea and Bro Morgannwg NHS Trusts. Close links exist with Swansea University and the Swansea University Medical School, along with other university and college partners in Wales.

Swansea Bay University Health Board has a wide range of hospital services, including specialist services like Cardiac, Renal, Plastic Surgery, Pancreatic Surgery, Bariatric Surgery, Renal Medicine and the Burns Centre for Wales & the South West. The Health Board also provides Community, Mental Health (including Forensic Psychiatry) and Learning Disabilities services.

The Trust has three major hospitals: and Singleton in Swansea and Neath-Port Talbot in Baglan. It also has 14 community hospitals, clinics and treatment centres with in-patient beds and 46 community clinics and health centres, all helping to deliver care. The Trust has more than 2,800 beds and deals with more than 110,000 in-patients and around 220,000 patients a year attend the A&E and casualty/minor injury departments.

Morriston Hospital is a large general and specialist hospital located at the northern boundary of the city of Swansea, in close proximity to the M4. The hospital has approximately 800 beds and offers a full range of specialist services.

Established in 2004, Swansea University’s Medical School is an internationally-recognised centre of excellence in medical research, education and innovation. It delivers a comprehensive education and training portfolio, from undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in medicine and life sciences, to professional graduate training and research, as well as working closely with NHS partners to achieve excellence in teaching, research and clinical service.

The Medical School is home to Wales’s only fast-track Graduate Entry Medicine (GEM) Programme and has joined the General Medical Council’s (GMC) distinguished list of UK medical schools entitled to award UK primary medical qualifications (PMQs). It also offers a range of BSc genetics and biochemistry programmes, training life scientists of the future in its own state-of-the-art multidisciplinary research facility, the Institute of Life Science (ILS). 2

The College’s research enterprise contributed significantly to Swansea University’s performance in the UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008 with 70% of the work rated as internationally excellent or having international recognition and 20% rated as world-leading. The results of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014, shows that Swansea now ranks 26th in the UK from a ranking of 56 in 2008. This is the greatest improvement in ranking achieved by any UK University. The College links strongly to the NHS, in particular with our Health Board but also Hywel Dda Health Board and Public Health Wales. The College hosts several all-Wales research networks in epilepsy, diabetes, asthma, unscheduled treatment care and mental health

Cardiology within Swansea The cardiology services in Swansea are based over 2 sites, and Morriston Hospital. The Regional Cardiac Centre opened at the Morriston Site in 1997 and provides tertiary cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery for a population of approximately 933,000 in Swansea and South . There is a very close working relationship and strong links with its referral base made up of hospitals in South West Wales The Regional Cardiac Centre, although integrated within the main hospital building, has a well-defined three-storey site. The lower ground floor is composed of an outpatient consultation area and non-invasive cardiology suite. It houses the echocardiography department that is BSE accredited. The ground floor has the main ward areas, including cardiology and cardiac surgery, HDU, and an eight bedded CCU with assessment of patients with acute chest pain, etc. The administration section of the Cardiac Centre houses a dedicated seminar room with modern audio-visual facilities. The first floor contains three flat plate cardiac catheterisation suites (Siemens and Phillips), the pacing suite, 12 bed cardiac short-stay unit, two cardiothoracic theatres and 10 bed cardiac ITU. Cardiac CT and MRI services are provided in a collaborative arrangement with the Radiology directorate. The Regional Cardiac Centre currently performs more than 2500 angiograms, 1100 percutaneous interventions, 50 TAVI’s, 650 pacemakers (including biventricular and implantable defibrillator devices) and 700 open heart operations. The department has a complex ablation service for AF & VT in addition to an existing conventional ablation programme. The activity levels have increased progressively since the Centre opened and a high proportion is made up of urgent and emergency work Singleton Hospital provides inpatient care for cardiology patients and a range of non-invasive diagnostic services including exercise stress testing, Holter monitoring, echocardiography and nuclear myocardial perfusion scanning

Educational opportunities in the Health Board There is an active Postgraduate Medical Centre at both Morriston and Singleton Hospitals with an associated library. There are weekly clinical meetings at which the registrar will be expected to play an active part. There is regular subspecialty teaching in percutaneous intervention, echocardiography and electrophysiology and regular journal clubs, and full participation is expected in medical audit. The appointee will be expected to play a role in undergraduate teaching. There are structured teaching programmes for junior doctors which take place in protected "bleep free" time. There is a well-stocked Postgraduate Library which takes over 110 medical journals along with extensive access to e-journals and books. There is a joint postgraduate/undergraduate library in the new Clinical School Building. The Morriston On-line Clinical Information System has recently been introduced. This allows access to hospital guidelines, CD textbooks, electronic formularies and literature searches from any computer including those on the wards.

Swansea University Medical School The Medical School occupies the Grove Building, Institute of Life Sciences-1 (ILS1) and Institute of Life Sciences-2 (ILS2) at the Swansea University main campus – where there are experimental laboratories, an information technology suite, a suite of seminar rooms, a clinical skills and anatomy teaching facility, the School administration, and extensive office space. The College has additional buildings at each of Morriston, Singleton and sites. These accommodate the Senior Clinical Tutors of the School and support staff, and extensive teaching facilities. ILS1 is a new £50m development which has further enhanced the School’s research programme, with research collaboration with other Swansea University departments such as Chemistry, Engineering, Physics, Biology, Psychology, Sports Science and Health Sciences and links with local industry for the translation of health related research into the commercial sector. The Institute of Life Science building is adjacent to the Grove Building and contains extensive laboratory space as well as a major “deep computing” development in collaboration with IBM. The newer ILS2 building focuses on clinical research activity and clinical trials and contains a state of the art Joint Clinical Research Facility and advanced imaging suite. As well as a Graduate Entry Medical Student programme, a main aim of the School is research into efficient practice of medicine. Research is encompassed within two broad groupings within the School, Bio Medical Research (BIMR) and Community-based Medicine (CHIRAL). The emphasis is on high quality intra- and cross-disciplinary research that seeks interactions with other researchers locally, nationally and internationally and especially with the local NHS Trusts.

Research relating to this post There will be no in-patient commitments. This is to allow protected time for research. The Clinical Research Fellow will be invited to undertake a research project surrounding the current areas of Cardiovascular Research. Proposed area of cardiovascular research .Atherosclerotic plaque imaging. .Experimental clinical vascular biology, using a range of non-invasive techniques for evaluation of vascular pathophysiology

The applicant will also be expected to participate as a local sub-investigator in international phase 2 and 3 clinical trials relating to new treatments in development for cardiology. The whole process will be subjected to a careful academic evaluation and supervision undertaken by Prof Julian Halcox and Dr Dan Obaid.

Research Fellow’s Academic Development The fellow will be supported in the following academic development .Training with Good Clinical Practice (GCP). .Optional involvement within international trial work in Cardiology. .Presentations at the College of Medicine Postgraduate days. .Attendance at the bi-monthly Swansea Cardiovascular Research forums. .Attendance at the Swansea Interdisciplinary Cardiovascular Engineering Research Forums. . Training within statistics. .Presentation of results at national and international meetings (BCS, ESC, ACC, AHA). .Presentations to local patients groups. .Supervision of academic F1 trainee.

Conditions of Employment The post is subject to the Terms and Conditions of Service of Hospital Medical and Dental Staff as modified from time to time. Attention should be paid to the following: a) Registration The successful appointee must hold full registration with the General Medical Council. b) Medical Negligence Medical staff are normally covered by NHS Hospital and Community Health Services Indemnity against claims of medical negligence. However, in certain circumstances (especially in services for which a separate fee is paid) staff may not be covered by the indemnity. The Health Departments therefore advise that membership of a separate medical defence organisation is maintained. c) Medical Examination The appointment is subject to a satisfactory medical examination. d) References All staff appointments are made subject to the receipt of three satisfactory references. e) Ionisation Radiation Regulations 1988 It is a statutory requirement that all medical and dental staff undertake training in Radiation protection.

Proposed work programme: a.m. p.m. Monday Research/CRU Research Tuesday Research/CRU Research/CRU Wednesday Research/ ILS 2 Clinical Session/ Research Thursday Research/CRU Research/CRU Friday Research/ ILS 2 Clinical Session/ Research