26 June 2007
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The country’s former Chief Nursing Officer will chair our new Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education |
Dame Yvonne Moores, former Chief Nursing Officer for England, will chair our newly-launched Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education (CoPMRE).
Dame Yvonne - a Pro Chancellor of BU and a Non-Executive Director at Poole General Hospital - brings with her a wealth of experience and enthusiasm.
Speaking at the launch of the Centre, Dame Yvonne said:
“I want to ensure that the people of Dorset benefit from having our terrific National Health Service and our terrific Bournemouth University. I am privileged to be involved in bringing both organisations together to energise research and to enhance patient care in this area.
“I very much look forward to working with all the people who are building this centre into an institution that will benefit the people of Dorset.”
Based in the School of Health and Social Care on our Lansdowne Campus in Bournemouth, the Centre is a significant collaboration between the University and the NHS in Bournemouth, Poole, and across Dorset.
Consultant rheumatologist Professor Paul Thompson from Poole Hospital and diabetes specialist Dr David Kerr from the Royal Bournemouth Hospital have worked with Dr Gail Thomas, Dean of the School, in getting the Centre off the ground.
There has been a 15-year relationship between the University and the NHS in the region that has involved collaboration on research and teaching, but primarily in the fields of nursing, midwifery and allied health professions.
However in our plan to establish centres of research excellence, the decision was made to formally tie together medical research across the local NHS with our academia, and to explore the potential for interprofessional work in the future.
“The new Centre is about visibly bringing doctors into the University,” said Professor Thompson.
“This is a win-win situation – for doctors, by having university facilities to assist their work and research, and for the University, by having the academic output.
“For example – how can bio-engineering help orthopaedics with limb replacement? Having this Centre means we can now more easily exchange ideas and methods of working on researching topics.
“There is also the status from being associated with medicine and the increased research awards for the University.”
Dr Thomas said she expected the Centre to lead to more and more collaborative work with the NHS, along with some honorary appointments and visiting professorships.
“We will be encouraging greater collaborations – programmes of research and so on – and taking the research that is going on out there in a piecemeal way at the moment and co-ordinating it in a more formal way,” she said.
“There are many people in practice that want to do research and developmental work - that’s people in the hospitals and the wider NHS - but don’t know where to start. This Centre gives them some focus.”
With the support of the local hospital trusts, the Centre’s long-term aim is to enrich the whole environment by improving the quality of care and increasing the attractiveness of working in the NHS in Dorset through the association with the University.
Professor Thompson added: “It should also improve the status of the University by having a medical research centre here, aid recruitment and bring more research money into the University.”
For more information please see the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research website.
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