Hospitals in west London have been re-accredited as an Academic Health Science Centre.
The Department of Health has renewed Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust ’s unique partnership with Imperial College London university, which work together to translate pioneering scientific discoveries in the lab to new therapies and medical techniques in wards.
The Trust , which manages Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea, St Mary’s and Western Eye hospitals, became the first AHSC in the UK in 2009 and has to renew its status every five years.
Professor Dermot Kelleher, vice president of the university and chairman of Imperial College AHSC, said: “Our strategy puts the patient at the centre of everything that we do. All of our research is designed to support patient care. This will transform quality of life in our community.”
Leaders from the NHS, universities and charities came together last week to meet the Imperial College AHSC team and heard about new treatments emerging from the university.
This included Professor Roger Kneebone’s research group’s live surgery simulation using a pop-up operating theatre to recreate an angioplasty, where a balloon catheter is inserted into an artery narrowed by coronary heart disease.
And the Brain Sciences and Diseases department featured EEG Pong, a mind-controlled video game in which players use their brain waves to play table tennis.
