Professional Qualifications

 

• Member of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (MRCEM), May 2011, by examination
• Master of Public Health in Public Health (Health Services Research), University of Sheffield, November 2010
• Master of Science (Pathological Studies), University of Birmingham, July 2004
• Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB), University of Birmingham, July 2006

 

Other Professional and Academic Activities

 

I am an instructor and Medical Course Director for Resuscitation Council (UK) Advanced Life Support courses.

 

I have been a member of the Resuscitation Council (UK)'s Community Resuscitation subcommittee since 2005, and its Executive Committee since 2015. I have been involved in a number of endeavours with the Council, including: production of a training manual for Basic Life Support and Automated External Defibrillation use in 2010; a systematic review about cardiac arrest occurring in schools, in response to questions asked by members of the public; preparing web-based "frequently asked questions" and statements; and co-authoring the UK guidelines for BLS and AED use that were published in October 2015.

 

In 2015-16, I led a joint initiative between the Resuscitation Council (UK) and the British Heart Foundation to redesign signs for public-access AED, to increase public awareness and understanding of AED. There was extensive public consultation via online surveys to optimise the design and understanding of this sign, representing the first time worldwide that AED signage has been designed with so much public involvement. A paper has been submitted for publication, and the work was recognised as an important initiative to improve outcomes from cardiac arrest. The signs are due to be launched by both organisations in March 2017. They appear in the national 'Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: Resuscitation to Recovery' document, published in January 2017.

 

In 2015-16, I acted as Clinical Research Analyst for a British Heart Foundation project at the University of Warwick's Institute of Digital Healthcare, investigating the feasibility of a comprehensive national database for Public Access Defibrillation (PAD). I conducted an extensive review of the published literature and other information sources for evidence of PAD effectiveness, barriers and facilitators to PAD use, how public AED are mapped and located, and how a national database might improve PAD effectiveness. The review formed part of a larger report to the British Heart Foundation in January 2016. This has resulted in the formation of a national database for public-access AED in the UK, which is being developed over the next 3-5 years.