HYMS

sheet

HYMS Dean Professor Tony Kendrick
JANUARY/
(left) welcomes Greg Dyke, Chancellor
FEBRUARY
of the University of York (right), on a
2011
recent visit to the medical School 

Widening Participation’s new strategy
HYMS’ Widening Participation
Team, led by Associate Dean
for Admissions Jane Adam, has
just published its strategy for
the next three years.
Widening Participation is undertaken
by all medical schools in the UK in an
attempt to ensure doctors represent
every sector of the population. The work
done by Jane Adam and Widening
Participation Manager Jo Cross is aimed at
students from less advantaged
backgrounds who have an interest in
medicine and the potential to be a doctor.
“Compared with other medical
schools, HYMS has an extremely
comprehensive strategy, covering every
age group, utilising its limited Widening
Participation resources to best effect,”
explained Jane. “There has been extensive
consultation with our partner
organisations during the creation of this
strategy.”
In the next three years it aims to
reach as many people as possible across
the HYMS region, in order to increase the
level of knowledge and understanding
about studying medicine across the whole
region.
Highlights of the strategy for the next
three years include:
– Aiming  work specifically at parents and
teachers, making the most efficient use of
HYMS resources, by developing projects
that can become self-sustaining  A joint initiative of the Centre for
– Developing the Lucy project into a
multi-media project with help from the
HYMS e-learning team, so the project can
be used by schools and teachers over the
internet as well as during activity days at
HYMS
– Working with HYMS students from WP
backgrounds on HYMS Website
information development to create a new
area of the website that provides the sort
of information that WP applicants have
difficulty finding, and addresses likely fears
and uncertainties, such as funding. 
Wellcome Funding
The Wellcome Trust has
awarded funding to Professor
Deborah Smith to help
establish a new four year PhD
programme for
interdisciplinary training in
infectious disease research at
the University of York.
Immunology and Infection (CII) and
the York Centre for Complex
Systems Analysis, the CIDCATS
programme (Combating Infectious
Disease: Computational Approaches
in Translational Science) will be
directed by Professor Smith.
Professor Paul Kaye (HYMS/CII) and
Dr Marjan van der Woude
(HYMS/CII) will be involved in
management of the project, with the
first students arriving next October.


Major The outcomes of patients with new onset heart failure are being investigated in a
European-wide research programme, funded by a grant from the European Union
funding for worth more than £10m.
heart failure
© HYMS 2011

The Department of Academic Cardiology at the University of Hull, headed by Postgraduate Medical
Institute and HYMS Professor John Cleland, is taking the lead in the UK as part of the multi-national
research consortium that aims to find why some patients do not respond to treatment as well as expected. 
 Calendar February 8 March
of events Seminar

For full details of all
these events, plus
many more lectures,
seminars, conferences
and social events, visit
www.hyms.ac.uk/events
7 Arts-based methods in
health research 2
George Belliveau & Susan M Cox
Inaugural Lecture Seminar
More malignant than
Alcuin Lecture Theatre
Medical Education – more
(AEW/003)
cancer? The great medical politics than evidence
The University of York 
success story of the last
Prof David Blaney
30 years
Prof Andrew Clarke
Middleton Hall, 
24 ARRC Auditorium,
The University of York 

The University of Hull  An evening with

Professor Parveen Kumar
Alcuin Lecture Theatre
(AEW/003)
The University of York 

Staff news Ethics Society launch

WELCOME to new staff members ...
Dr Dimitris Lagos, Lecturer in
Immunology
Victoria Hill, Postgraduate
Administrative Assistant, HYMS
Postgraduate Centre
Dr Paul Pryor, Lecturer in Cellular
Microbiology
CONGRATULATIONS to ...
Professor Ian Chetter, who has been
appointed Chair in Surgery
Dr Janine Henderson, who will take
over as Associate Dean for Admissions in
summer 2011
Med Ed publications
RECENT publications by HYMS staff in
the field of medical education include:
Dornan T, McKendree J, Robbé IJ (2011)
Medical Education in an age of complexity,
uncertainty and reflection: a coda to the
Flexner centenary Medical Education, 45(1),
p 2-6. 
McKendree J, Snowling MJ (2011)
Examination results for medical students
with dyslexia Medical Education, 45 (2), pp
176–182. 
Ethical dilemmas?
CARDIFF University is inviting medical
students from all over the country to
contribute to a study on ethical decision-
making related to professionalism. 
Stories with the mouse symbol  have more information in the news section
of the HYMS website, where you will also find breaking news, updates and images.
www.hyms.ac.uk/news
THE new HYMS student Ethics Society
holds its inaugural event on 14 February
with guest speaker Sir Graeme Catto,
former president and chair of the General
Medical Council. 
The society’s second event on 3 March
will be an independently facilitated patient
talk on Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS)/
euthanasia followed by an open discussion
on the issues. Debbie Purdy, who was
herself at the centre of a media storm
around the debate, will be speaking pro
PAS/euthanasia and Geoff Morris will be
speaking against it. 
Chocolate helps coughs
A CHEMICAL in cocoa could soon be
turned into a medicine for persistent
cough, researchers claim. Scientists,
including Alyn Morice, Professor of
Respiratory Medicine/Head of
Cardiovascular and Respiratory Studies at
PGMI and HYMS, are carrying out the final
stages of clinical trials of a drug that
contains theobromine, an ingredient found
in chocolate and cocoa. 
Advance notice
THE University of York’s annual Learning
and Teaching conference will be held on
25 May 2011. This year’s theme is ‘Beyond
the surface: student engagement and
deeper learning’. 
Research publications
RECENT publications by HYMS
staff include:
FAK Mazari, K Mockford, C Barnett, J
A Khan, B Brown, L Smith, R Polman,
A Hancock, NK Vanicek, IC
Chetter. Hull early walking aid for
rehabilitation of transtibial amputees
– randomized controlled trial
(HEART). Journal of Vascular Surgery
Dec 2010 52; 1564-1571. 
M Abdul Rahman, JA Khan, FA
Mazari, K Mockford, PT McCollum,
IC Chetter. A randomized placebo
controlled trial of the effect of
preoperative statin use on matrix
metalloproteinases and tissue
inhibitors of matrix
metalloproteinases in areas of low
and peak wall stress in patients
undergoing elective open repair of
abdominal aortic aneurysm. Annals of
Vascular Surgery Jan 2011 25; 32-38. 
I Chetter, D Carradice, N Samuel.
Concomittant phlebectomy is
essential following truncal
endovenous laser ablation. In Vascular
and Endovascular Challenges Update.
Ed R M Greenhalgh, Published by
BIBA, ISBN 0-9544687-7-5.
If you have any
contributions for
this internal bulletin,
please send them to
val.parker
@hyms.ac.uk