CCMAA Newsletter Spring 2016
Patrons Sir Peter Lachmann
Dr Visvan Navaratnam
President Tony Jewell
Secretary David Thomas
Webmaster Tom Turmezei
Steering group
Judith Allanson, Ali Amini, Jonathan Gillard, Fazal Hasan, Tim Heymann, Mike Knapton, Sanjay Jariwala, Martin Johnson, Dylan Mac Lochlainn, Theresa Marteau, Abteen Mostofi, Andrew Sharkey, Erin Weatherstone.
Welcome to this second newsletter
We look forward to hearing news from you to include in future issues!
CHANGE AT THE TOP
At our recent meeting a number of changes were approved. First and foremost, Visvan Navaratnam was made a patron of the association, in appreciation of all that he has done for both alumni and undergraduates over many years. Following the retirement of Martin Johnson as President, Tony Jewell has taken over as President, and is joined as secretary by David Thomas, following the retirement of Tom Turmezei, who continues as webmaster – to Tom our thanks for all his hard work for the CCMAA. We wish well to this new top team and thank Martin for his enthusiastic support for the development and success of the CCMAA!
Congratulations
To Paul Moss [m. 1980], who has been elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences. Also to Martin Johnson [m. 1963] who is giving the RG Edwards lecture to the Indian Association of Clinical Embryologists in Jaipur in July.
THE CCMAA WEBPAGES
May we encourage you to visit the re-organised and streamlined CCMAA webpage, which you can access at https://alumni.christs.cam.ac.uk/sslpage.aspx?pid=435
If you haven’t already registered at https://alumni.christs.cam.ac.uk/home, please do so and take advantage of this new facility. There is information about the association, past and upcoming meetings (including minutes of the association and steering committee meetings), and a new private discussion area for CCMAA members where we can post on topics such as career advice, prize opportunities and any other such matters.
A CCMAA mailing list has been formalised with the Development Office, but this is not yet currently available through the website. If you have any news that you would like to circulate through this mailing list or any feedback on the webpages, please contact our webmaster, Tom Turmezei (tom@diagnosticradiology.eu).
CCMAA LOGO
We want you to put your creative hats on and design a logo for us, to be sent to David Thomas at tdct2@cam.ac.uk by the end of June 2016. The winner will get a free dinner and registration fee paid at a CCMAA meeting of their choice!
DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS FOR YOUR DIARIES
28th January 2017: Joint CCMAA-CCMS meeting at Christ’s. Already slated to speak is Paresh Vyas (m. 1980)Consultant Haematologist and Professor of Haematology, Oxford University see http://oxford-haematology.org.uk/our-consultants/paresh-vyas
14th and 15th April 2018 meeting of CCMAA at Christ’s
We want to hear from you please contact David Thomas (tdct2@cam.ac.uk) with suggestions/volunteers for speakers please!
NEWS ITEMS
On 21st September 2015 a celebratory meeting and dinner to mark the retirement of Professor Martin Johnson (m. 1963) from his University chair was attended by some 140 former and current colleagues and students, including many from Christ’s. Called Inside‐Outside: Challenges and Prejudices, the meeting reflected the varied interests that Martin has had through his career. For details, photographs and videos of some of the presentations see www.pdn.cam.ac.uk/inside-outside
Report on winter meeting on 8th or 9th December 2015, when CCMAA met for a 2-hour evening meeting at Imperial College, London, hosted by Tim Heymann. Speakers were Fiona Fox from the Science Media Centre, who made a plea for our help to get the media to report on science and medicine more accurately. She gave examples of how by calling upon a panel of experts the science media centre had managed to get more critical and responsible reporting of a number of potentially sensational issues. If you would be interested in finding out more about volunteering to be available to make critical comments about some of the latest scientific or medical claims in your areas of expertise, then you can contact the science media centre [http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/ or fiona@sciencemediacentre.org] – and remember every quote that gets used in the press can count as part of your public
engagement profile!
Fiona was followed by our own Mike Knapton who talked about his recent experiences discussing with some of the politicians involved, the Access to Palliative Care Bill (2015). He described the Parliamentary process and his understanding of how the process works. The ethical and practical issues that end-of-life care raises were then considered – topical subjects with new guidance from NICE being subjected to severe criticism, with the demise of the Liverpool Care Pathway, and with the Joffe, and more recently Faulkner, Assisted Suicide Bills proposing the introduction of medically assisted suicide, however, when pressed to declare where he stood on the issue of medically assisted suicide he was undecided.
The meeting ended with some more taxing, but enjoyable, medical negligence case studies from Tom Boyd. After the meeting we enjoyed dinner at a local restaurant.
Report on the spring meeting of the CCMAA held at Christ’s on the 9th and 10th April 2016
For photographs see: https://www.flickr.com/photos/christsalumnievents/albums/72157665997328844
We met for lunch at 12.30 in the function room of the Hamied Centre, where we were able to admire the recently hung pictures and photographs from the college collection, before moving to the theatre for the business meeting of the CCMAA at 13.30, chaired with verve and efficiency by the retiring secretary Tom Turmezei (m. 1996).
Then at 13.00, the newly elected President, Tony Jewell (m. 1969) welcomed the members and their guests, as well as those members of the CCMS, who had joined us, before handing over to the chairs of the first session, Judith Allanson (m. 1980) and Andrew Sharkey (m. 1979). Three absorbing and varied 20 minute presentations then ensued.
First off was Tom Turmezei (m. 1996), who gave a delightful talk, illustrated by movie clips, about his experiences imaging “art works and archeological artefacts” in association with the Fitzwilliam Museum, including the coffins of Egyptian mummies, mannequins used by artists, and a small Egyptian funerary-like box that seemed to contain the remains of a late aborted foetus.
Second, Jai Chitnavis(m. 1982) gave a talk about Problem knees, in which he skillfully reminded us of our functional anatomy as he took us through the injuries experienced by, and the treatments available for, this most vulnerable of joints, which as he amply demonstrated was required for both stability and flexibility – in both cases taking really heavy loads. Jai’s presentation can be viewed here.
Finally, Arnold Fertig (m. 1968) set his recent experiences of commissioning and helping to provide a better integrated service for frail older people within a historical context that embraced the organisational changes seen in the NHS since its conception. His conclusion that the current model is just not fit for purpose was widely supported. Some interesting video clips can be viewed here, you can also view Arnold’s presentation here.
After a break for tea, during which members had the opportunity to view posters prepared by Tom Turmezei, we resumed for a discussion on the very topical question of “seven-day” NHS services. The chair, Theresa Marteau (fellow), first asked people present whether they supported the junior hospital doctors in their action, and they received strong support. To kick off, Rashmi Patel (m.2002) presented his research study investigating clinical outcomes of people admitted to psychiatric hospitals at the weekend. Unlike previous studies in acute hospitals suggesting worse clinical outcomes and increased risk of inpatient mortality for patients
admitted at the weekend, Rashmi reported the opposite in psychiatric hospitals, where patients admitted at the weekend are likely to have a shorter duration of admission and reduced risk of inpatient mortality. He reported that this outcome was probably because the population of patients admitted to psychiatric hospitals at the weekend is quite different to that during the week (e.g.
younger, possibly more likely to have presentations associated with alcohol/illicit substances and so recover quickly). He suggested that this probably means that delivering a mental healthcare service, which is uniformly resourced on every day of the week, is unlikely to be the optimal way of structuring services and could result in an opportunity cost by diverting resources away from weekdays to the weekend. He also suspected that the same is true of other areas in acute and community healthcare. Then each of three panel members expressed their views on a seven-day NHS –Mike Morgan (m. 1969, consultant), James Jones (m. 2005, Junior hospital doctor), and Mike Knapton (m. 1977, formerly general practitioner), which was followed by a lively discussion. You can view Rashmi’s presentation here.
Then we admitted members of the public for our second public lecture given by Paul Elliott (m. 1972), who was introduced by our president, Tony Jewell (m. 1969). Paul then gave a brilliantly clear account of the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease, historically, nationally and internationally. He showed that the key factors in rising levels of cardiovascular disease was lack of exercise and changes in diet, especially the increased salt intake, and that only by changing these had cardiovascular disease started to decline here in the UK. Particularly telling was his data on the slight effect that blood pressure controlling medication had had on cardiovascular disease, largely because most of the population with high blood pressure are not diagnosed and thus not treated. View Paul’s presentation here.
We then repared to the old combination room for pre-dinner drinks, before proceeding to Hall, where preceded by grace read by Visvan Navaratnam (fellow), we then dined on a sumptuous meal in convivial company. After dinner, Sir Christopher Edwards (m.
1960) gave a wide-ranging and thought provoking speech, based on his considerable experiences of medicine and higher education, illustrated by amusing and informative anecdotes. The evening was rounded off by a speech of thanks to Sir Christopher, to all the speakers and chairs, to the staff in the alumnus office and to the chef and the waiting staff, given by Fazal Hasan (m.1979), who ended by proposing a toast to the CCMAA.
The following delightfully sunny morning, we were warmly welcomed by Jackie Kelly, to coffee in the Master’s garden, where we were amazed to learn that most of the brightly coloured carp had been eaten by an otter, which was spotted crossing third court car park on video cameras, presumably en route from the Cam! So we left with yet another unlikely anecdote to add to the fund of stories that Christ’s provides its members.