Artwork by Joe Mahon
I feel like I talk a lot about things being scary on this blog.
Blogging is scary. Blogging is putting your writing, reflections and opinions on the internet and totally opening yourself up to criticism. If you don’t think that’s scary then can you come and write a blog post for us please?!
On the 21st-22nd September, at a swanky venue in the centre of London’s financial district, AI and deep learning experts gathered to network and share their research and developments in the field. My colleague, Adriana, and I were lucky enough to win tickets from One HealthTech to attend this event.
Continue reading “Re-Work Deep Learning in Healthcare Summit”
Last year I attended the Manchester Academy for Healthcare Scientist Education (MAHSE) research day, where STP trainees and other speakers gave various talks and presentations. It was a very useful day, learning about other trainee’s research projects and receiving lots of useful advice. One of the keynote speakers, Dr Elaine Cloutman-Green, gave a great talk detailing her journey to becoming a clinical scientist and beyond. One point that particularly stuck with me was “Step out of your box” and the idea of saying “YES” to any opportunities that may come your way, no matter how much out of your ‘box’ they are. As a previous genetic technologist and current trainee bioinformatician, I consider myself firmly in the ‘science’ box. It’s nice and comfy, and feels pretty safe…
Continue reading “Stepping Outside Your Box and Patient Engagement”
A few weeks ago I had the amazing opportunity to attend the European Conference of Computational Biology (ECCB) in Athens, Greece. As a proud greek, the moment I saw there was a bioinformatics conference in my home country I really wanted to go, but also it was an excellent opportunity for me to network, create new contacts and ideally find potential elective opportunities. Every trainee, depending on the trust, has a budget allocated by the school to cover the expenses of going to university. If you are not too frivolous when booking your university accommodation, you might end up with some leftover budget that can be used to attend conferences like this one. Don’t be afraid to ask! If you find an event or a conference that you think might be interesting, ask your TO if you can go. Obviously, don’t find the most expensive conference on the other side of the world cause there’s so much your budget can stretch to.
Conferences can be interesting, exciting, informative and even inspiring. But they can also be a little bit daunting and definitely exhausting. I’m feeling very slightly conferenced-out at the moment, having attended 2 back-to-back last week and knowing I’m attending another meeting next week. It’s safe to say there is only so much information my brain can hold so I’m lucky none of my shoes were lace-ups last week.
If you had up to 6 weeks away from your day job to broaden your experiences around healthcare and science, how would you spend it? Sounds like a hypothetical, but that’s the very question you’re faced on the Scientist Training Programme. The scheme has loads of opportunities to tailor it to your interests, but the elective is by far the most flexible component; giving you the exciting opportunity to spend up to 6 weeks gaining experience outside the normal realms of your training.
I’ve recently organised and am soon heading off on my own elective at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation . So I thought now might be a good time to share some tips based on what I did while searching for an elective.
Continue reading “How to: Organise Your Elective – Some Personal Experiences”
It’s national coding week! To celebrate I wanted to talk about how important coding is in healthcare and put it into perspective for those of you that might read that and think “Coding? How could that possibly influence my healthcare?”
It’s true, I may be a little biased as I am a bioinformatician, so a large part of my job is – you guessed it – coding. However, I really don’t think it will be long before coding will be an essential part of all healthcare science jobs!
Last week we received a message from a reader:
Hi There,
As an STP applicant and interviewee for the last three years on my chosen programme I have been left with a sour taste in my mouth regarding the credibility of the interview process for STPs. Unfortunately I don’t think I am the only potential applicant who feels this way, yet our voices continue to go unheard with the feedback we provide to the school of healthcare science. It would be great to see current STPs in post displaying a balanced view of the application process, interview process and training programme to potential applicants rather than a rose-tinted view. It is quite unconvincing when we see a page promoting the STP from such a light when we have seen that year upon year, excellent candidates are slipping through the net, becoming increasingly demeaned and disheartened while less experienced candidates who are able to charm at interview get recruited.
Please let me know your opinion on this.
Firstly, we just want to say thank you for getting in touch, we really value the opinions of our readers and hearing from you helps us to know what to write about. We wanted to share what you’ve written so we can fully address what you’ve spoken about in a way that can help everyone.
Every year TEDxNHS is over-subscribed. You fill out a form on their website with a statement of intent and you send it off expecting never to hear back. A few weeks ago, this TED super-fan was lucky enough to attend TEDxNHS 2018 ‘Shaping our legacy’. If morale is ever low or you question why we do what we do, I would prescribe these talks. Special mention to Dr. Charlotte Kemp for being the first Healthcare Scientist to grace this TEDx stage. NHS staff will soon be able to access the videos at https://www.tedxnhs.com/ but in the meantime, here are 5 of my take-home messages from the event:
The beliefs we hold as a society can unfairly disgrace and devalue those within it. We all know stigma has no place in healthcare and the following talks showed the steps we can all take towards a zero-stigma NHS.
…But the start of a new one!
Hello everyone! Earlier this week was the STP induction day in Birmingham for all the new trainees. So I thought, as so many people are starting their scientist training journey, what better time to share a look back from someone who is coming to the end of theirs. I asked Verity Fryer, a third year clinical bioinformatics trainee (and now also a fully employed Healthcare Scientist!) in my department some questions about her past 3 years and this is what she had to say:
How do you feel coming to the end of the STP?
Relieved, happy and proud of what I’ve achieved. I can’t quite believe I’ve done it and it’s finished (I submitted and had approved my last competency this morning!).
STP Perspectives 