Associated projects

Tolerance in human kidney transplantation and using big data in orthopaedics

I did graduate-entry medicine at Oxford, prior to which I did a PhD in immunology. I was involved in a lot of research throughout medical school, and I was keen to continue it alongside my clinical career.

I learned about the ASFP from colleagues who were ahead of me in medical school. After I learned about the programme, and specifically how it worked in Oxford, I set my sights on applying. It seemed like a fantastic opportunity to continue research alongside my Foundation training. 

My ASFP experience was fantastic. I had excellent supervisors who facilitated different projects and really helped me get the most out of my academic time. My ASFP included day-release in one of my rotations in F1, as well as a four-month block of research time in my F2 year.

I had two different projects. One was working with professor Fadi Issa in the TRIG research group. It focused on the use of Tregs in kidney transplantation as an alternate method of immunosuppression and tolerance induction. The second was a big-data project in orthopaedics. We used national NHS data to look at the outcomes of lower-limb surgeries across the last 25 years.

The pros are: support for your research projects, access to courses, such as the OUCAGS research methods course, access to university facilities and resources, support for attending conferences with the academic budget, and time for developing and evolving your research.

I can’t think of any disadvantages. Some people state the reduced clinical time can be a disadvantage, but I found that, if you make the most of your clinical placements, you will be in no way worse off than your peers.

Having been at university here, I was already working with different research groups, so I was keen to continue the work I had begun as a medical student. However, I cannot emphasise enough that Oxford is a fantastic place to get involved in research. There is so much going on across all the departments and you will always find senior academics who are supportive and keen to get you involved in projects.

WHAT’S NEXT?

The ASFP has confirmed that I wish to balance academic work with clinical in the future, and I will seek to pursue an ACF (academic clinical fellowship) at ST3.

October 2024