CL in General Practice
Dr Clare Taylor
Pathway to a Clinical Lectureship
I graduated from the University of Cambridge and my postgraduate training included a cardiology job at Papworth Hospital which started my interest in cardiology. I then did further training in academic general practice which introduced me to research.
I completed a Master’s in Public Health then applied to the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and was awarded a Doctoral Research Fellowship. My doctoral work explored the clinical pathways of patients with heart failure in primary care.
I have also worked on large heart-failure screening and diagnostic accuracy studies (called ‘ECHOES’ and ‘REFER’) and lead a Heart Failure module at Master’s level.
I love being an academic GP combining clinical work, teaching and research and wanted to continue on to a CL post.
What does the work involve?
I am now an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences.
My current projects include a Priority Setting Partnership on advanced heart failure, using the James Lind Alliance method, and ongoing work on the diagnosis and prognosis for patients with heart failure in the community. I am also the trial clinician for the OxRen study, examining the development of chronic kidney disease in a screened population over 60 years of age, and the BARACK-D study, examining the effect of spironolactone on cardiovascular outcomes in patients with CKD stage3b.
I have also established collaborations within the department, becoming part of the Monitoring in Long-Term Conditions team, and with the Oxford University NHS Foundation Trust, working on a population-based screening study for valvular heart disease (the OxValve study). I supervise a DPhil student, two Master’s projects and a third-year medical student, and I’m also on the NICE Chronic Heart Failure Guideline committee.
I am really enjoying my CL post. I love being a GP seeing our patients at the practice - they are the reason we do research and why it matters. I feel privileged to be able to combine being a clinician with working as an academic contributing to research which may affect many current and future patients. I feel passionately that a new generation of researchers should be encouraged from within primary care to provide a sound evidence base for what we as GPs do each day.
Why Oxford?
The University of Oxford has an international reputation for research and the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences was ranked top in the last Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise.
Also, I started my medical education in Cambridge and lived there for some years. There is an incredible similarity between the two places which makes Oxford feel like home.
September 2017