THE WEST MIDLANDS DEANERY
GASTROENTEROLOGY
HEPATOLOGY
TRAINING POST
Introduction
The Liver Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham provides a
regional service in Hepatology and a supraregional service for Fulminant Liver
Failure and Liver Transplantation.
The firm consists of 14 Consultants, 1 Lecturer, 8 Specialist Registrars, 1 JSD
(SpR Level), and junior staff.
There are 32 beds in the Liver Unit ward and dedicated liver beds within the
hospital’s main ICU. Hepatology patients are also admitted to the ambulatory
care ward for short stay procedures.
The Hepatology trainee will participate in a full shift rota with 7 other SpR’s
with some support from the JSD (SpR grade). Duties include:
1.
Providing cover for the Liver Intensive Care Unit, under the supervision
of a Consultant Physician and Consultant in Intensive Care.
2.
Caring
3.
Outpatient activity, including Hepatology/post transplant clinics and
outpatient transplant assessment, 1 weekly therapeutic endoscopy list
(mainly variceal band ligation) and ERCP sessions where applicable.
4.
Participation in Liver Unit audit and postgraduate teaching programme.
for
in-patients
on
the
Hepatology
wards.
The exact timetable will depend on discussion with the Consultants at the
start of the post, but protected time for research will be provided.
Hepatology Research Opportunities
The Liver Research Laboratories are directed by Professor David Adams
(Chair of Hepatology), and are based in the state of the art JIF-funded
Institute of Biomedical Research. The Liver Research Laboratories research
staff comprises one non-clinical Reader (Simon Afford), two clinical senior
lecturer (Phil Newsome, Gideon Hirschfield), two MRC Clinician Scientist (Ye
Oo, Shishir Shetty), two Lecturers in Medicine (one non-clinical), 8 postdoctoral Research Fellows, 3 Research Associates, 8 full-time grant funded
clinical Research Fellows, 6 Ph.D. students and 3 technicians. The unit has a
proven track record and currently holds grants from the MRC, Wellcome
Trust, BBSRC, and the NIHR. In addition to basic research activity in the
fields of immunology, liver regeneration, fatty liver disease and (stem) cell
biology the Liver Research Laboratories provide clinical services run by a
clinical scientist and technicians. That clinical service includes tissue typing,
immunosuppressive drug monitoring, haemochromatosis genotyping and
immunohistochemistry to support the clinical programme. The Liver Research
Laboratories are co-located with the Viral Hepatitis Group which is led by
Professor Jane McKeating.
The Liver Research Group has strong active links with industry which include
Geron (human embryonic stem cells), Novo Nordisk (Glucagon-1 like peptide
analogues), Novartis (Th17 cells), Unilever and Pfizer.
Recently, the Liver Unit in Birmingham was awarded Biomedical Research
Unit status (NIHR funded) for translational cell therapy in patients with liver
disease, which will significantly facilitate our effort to translate our findings in
the future. This will include a programme of work including clinical trials of
stem cells and immunotherapy. Professor Adams is the Director of the Unit,
with Dr Mutimer, Dr Newsome, Prof Young, Prof Johnston, Prof Stewart and
Prof McKeating being principle investigators.
Medical Staff in Liver Medicine
Consultant Hepatologists
Middle Grades
Dr Tahir Shah (Clinical Service Lead)
Professor David Adams
Dr James Ferguson
Dr Dennis Freshwater
Dr Geoffrey Haydon
Dr Gideon Hirschfield
Dr Andrew Holt
Dr David Mutimer
Professor James Neuberger
Dr Philip Newsome
Dr Ye Oo
Dr Shishir Shetty
Dr Arie Stangou
Dr Dhiraj Tripathi
8 Specialist Registrars (including one Lecturer,
one sub-specialist hepatology trainee). JSD (SpR
Grade)
F1 and F2 grade junior doctors also cover the liver unit.
Continuing Education and Professional Development
The post is a 12 month contract. The educational needs of the post holder will
be recognised. There will be entitlement to study leave and access to the
programmes of post graduate education organised for junior staff. There is a
Post-graduate Medical Centre at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham
and a well stocked Library.
Educational opportunities include a dedicated weekly session for MDT activity
comprising transplant waiting list meeting, combined medical/surgical X-Ray
meeting and clinical audit. In addition, there is a fortnightly histopathology
meeting, a weekly liver research meeting and weekly Medical Grand Round.
Further details may be obtained from:
Dr Dhiraj Tripathi (Consultant Hepatologist) on 0121 371 4672.
SPECIALIST REGISTRAR TIMETABLE
Monday
am
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Consultant ward
round
Ward work
Consultant ward
round
Grand Round
Clinic
Clinic
ERCP
Clinic
ERCP
Ward work
Clinic
ERCP
Consultant ward
round
Ward round
(ITU)
Ward round
(ITU)
Histology
meeting (1:2)
Basic science
research
meeting
Ward work
Consultant ward
round
Clinic
Ward round
(ITU)
Ward round
(ITU)
pm
Tuesday
Ward work
Ward work
Ward round
(ITU)
Ward round
(ITU)
Ward work
MDT afternoon
Research
Ward work
Endoscopy
Audit & teaching
Clinic
Ward round
(ITU)
ERCP
Admin/research
Ward round
(ITU)
Ward round
(ITU)