The NIHR Biomedical Research Centre
is committed to supporting an extended repertoire of
allied health professionals. These include nurses and midwives,
physiotherapists, dietitians and pharmacists. These health professionals
find it particularly challenging to take time out of their busy schedules and
undertake a period of dedicated research. Joining me today is Doctor Jig Patel,
Honorary Consultant Pharmacist and Clinical Senior Lecturer
at King's College College London
Jig, tell me about your journey from clinical pharmacist to PhD student.
So I qualified as a pharmacist in 1997,
some time ago now, and I did the usual rotational work
for a junior pharmacists would do in a number of hospitals in south east London
and the south coast and then I took a position in anticoagulant therapy in Brighton.
before moving back to London to do some work in one of the London hospitals
in anticoagulant therapy as well as doing some work at King's College London doing some
teaching for undergraduate students and it was during that time that I wanted to
do some research really clinical research that would have an impact on
patient care so that's when I spoke to my boss to see if there was an opportunity.
I had a research idea in mind but at that time I don't know how
to go about getting funding to do any research, particularly in a field where we don't
have a traditional sort of career path which leads to a research career.
It's difficult for people like yourself to actually find research opportunities and funding.
Yes, it's not as well defined I would say as perhaps a medical career.
So you undertook a three-year PhD?
Yes.
So what was the impact of that on your career and subsequent events?
it's been amazing actually I've absolutely loved it
at the time when I was applying for the funding I knew that's what I wanted to
do and because the research idea was something that I came up with myself it
was great to be given the opportunity to do the research and and then see its
impact on patient care. So the impact its had on my own career has been great
because following the completion of the research I have taken up a clinical
academic position between King's College London in the Institute of Pharmaceutical Science.
And your area of interest and expertise was what particularly at that point?
It was anticoagulation therapy. I'm based at KCL and I'm and also
at the department of Haematology at King's College Hospital.
So how would you see that
academic track differ from that if you had not decided to take the research route?
My full time research position? I think I've always enjoyed patient care and I
wouldn't want to lose that, so half of my time now I do still continue to provide a
clinical service. I use that as a foundation for my research activity so I
get to do both which I think is great because the slant of my research
activity is very much with with that patient focus in mind seeing that
translated into those patients I think it's great to do both.
Because of your own experience presumably you've had opportunities to influence young
clinical pharmacists coming through who've expressed an interest in doing research?
Yes because of the BRC funding schemes which are now available
I've supervised two MRes students, one Guy's and St Thomas' and one from King's
College Hospital over the last couple of years and recently we applied for some
funding from Bayer for a studentship and that was successful as well and that
that's seen a pharmacist from Guy's and St Thomas' come up to take up a PhD position
Finally let me ask you what would you see as the biggest challenge in
juggling clinical service and academic research?
I think the biggest challenge is just the time commitments because you end up doing
two roles and sometimes this doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day but I
think if you marry up the research with the clinical service then that
seems to work quite well and certainly works for me and that's I guess my
philosophy. I try to do research in the clinical area I work in and that works well.
Thank you Jig for telling us about your research career today.
No worries.
Compared to other clinical trainees opportunities for allied health care
professionals to undertake research are far more limiting we believe that those
schemes provided by the Biomedical Research Centre provide great
opportunities for trainees to use that clinical expertise to undertake a period
of research that will in the longer term benefit patients