Medical Education Programmes
Our current medical education programmes include:
Clinical Visits
Observing colleagues in centres of excellence is one of the most effective ways of ensuring that pioneering techniques and the newest technological developments are disseminated around the world and are brought to the UK. Clinical visits enable motivated and like-minded clinicians to discuss their clinical findings in person and observe first-hand how the latest management approaches are put into practice.
Clinical Visit funding from the Ralph Shackman Trust
From November 2011 the Ralph Shackman Trust has very kindly agreed to fund an initial three Clinical Visit applications through The Urology Foundation. The Foundation will screen the three applications through our usual selection process via the Scientific and Education Committee. TUF is very pleased to confirm that the first successful recipient of funding is Prasanna Sooriakumaran who says:
"I am delighted to be the first recipient of this Clinical Visit grant and extremely grateful to both the Ralph Shackman Trust and TUF. I am very grateful that small charities like the Ralph Shackman Trust make the effort to fund such grants, without which urology trainees like myself couldn't go off and learn specialised techniques and bring them back to the UK for the benefit of our patients."
The funding of £1,750 per application from the Ralph Shackman Trust is additional to the quarterly grants The Foundation currently provides. Please refer to our Application instructions.
To read some of the reports from recent clinical visits please click on one of the following links.
- Justin Collins - Robotic Assisted Laparoscopic Prostatectomy in Bordeaux
- Prasanna Sooriakumaran - Robotic Prostatectomy in the USA
- Krishna Patil - Pelvic Laparoscopy in Leipzig
- Nikesh Thiruchelvam - Clinical Visit – Female Reconstructive Urology in the USA
- Stephen Griffin - Clinical Visit – Paediatric Urology in Paris
- Vibhash Mishra - Clinical Visit – Mansoura, Egypt
How to apply for a Clinical Visit
The Urology Foundation supports clinical visits by Consultant Urologists and by Higher Surgical Trainees, in their final year of training, from the United Kingdom and Ireland to units abroad.
We would like to invite you to submit an application for a grant of up to £1,750, for a visit to a unit of your choice, which you feel would help your clinical practice. This will be a competitive grant, judged by a selection committee.
Thriving & Surviving as a New Consultant
Birmingham, Friday 11th & Saturday 12th November 2011
Once a specialist registrar takes up a consultancy position they are often asked to take on a number of responsibilities in addition to the medical duties for which they have trained.
These range from team management and department budgets to working with hospital boards but are not areas which are taught as part of the current career development plan. Listening to the views of consultants and specialist registrars, The Urology Foundation has responded by creating a short course for SpR’s approaching consultancy, OR consultants who have been in post for less than a year.
Running over a Friday afternoon and Saturday, the course is designed to minimise your time away from your work and patients.
Limited places are available so to register your interest please e-mail our Events Manager, Serena Wyman along with a copy of your CV or call the office on 0207 713 9538 and speak to a member of the TUF Team.
How to apply
SpRUCE Training Programme
This Specialist Registrar in Urology and Consultant Education (SpRUCE) programme was implemented last year. The first course was aimed at Specialist Registrars who were completing their training and applying for consultant posts. It was a skills based course focusing on their interviewing skills.
To see a short video about this course with feedback from some of the Specialist Registrars who attended it please click here.
Robotically Assisted Surgery Preceptorship Programme 2011
Robotic Surgery is becoming increasingly popular in the UK. In order to promote comprehensive training of surgical teams, we are pleased to announce three new preceptorship programmes in robotic urology. They are aimed at qualified consultants, surgical teams and trainees and cover both urological cancers as well as other non malignant urological conditions.
In order to be eligible, applicants must belong to institutions which already have or are committed to investment in this technology. All enquiries and applications should be sent to:
Christine Morris Tel: 020 7713 9538 Email: cmorris@theurologyfoundation.org
1. Consultant Training with a focus on urological cancers
Format: This is aimed at individual Consultants wishing to train in robotic surgery.
- One weeks' observation at Guy's under the supervision of Prof. P Dasgupta
- Four week clinical visit to University of Southern California (KECK) under the supervision of Prof. Indy Gill. This will provide high volume observation, and also training in a wet laboratory
2. Consultant and/or Surgical Team training for urological cancers and non malignant urological conditions
Format: Urological Consultant Surgeons and/or their surgical team e.g. 2 consultants and 2 nurses or 2 consultants, a trainee and a nurse. The lead consultant must prove that they have access to a robot.
- One day's observation at Guy's under the supervision of Prof. P Dasgupta
- 2 days at IRCAD, Paris for laboratory training under the supervision of David Douglas, Intuitive Trainer.
- A week at the Department of Urologic Surgery, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville under the supervision of Prof. Jay Smith
3. Robotically Assisted Surgical Trainee Fellowship
Format: A highly driven trainee who wishes to specialise in robotically assisted surgery would work for one year at the Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit under the supervision of Prof. Mani Menon and Dr Jim Peabody. Eligibility to be licensed in the USA is essential.
How to apply
- Programme Summary 2011
- Guidance Notes
- Application Form - Download in PDF or Word Doc
This programme is available only to urologists based in the UK and, in order to be eligible, applicants must belong to institutions which already have or are committed to investment in this technology in the UK and must confirm that post-training they will practice in the UK.
Deadline for applications: 1 May, 2011
Robotically Assisted Surgery Mentoring Programme
To date The Foundation has supported the introduction of robotically assisted surgery in Leeds, Manchester, Reading, Bristol, Stevenage and Torquay. The objective of the programmes is to mentor the whole surgical team as well as the urological surgeon.
The mentor will visit the centre for face to face mentoring for as many times as is required and then will support the centre with telephone advice.
For more information about this programme please contact The Urology Foundation on 020 7713 9538 or Christine Morris at cmorris@theurologyfoundation.org
Endourology Foundation Travelling Fellowship
Working in collaboration with the Section of Endourology, BAUS, this programme provides travel grants for urologists who have completed the Section's residential training course and are planning overseas clinical visits to complement the course.
To read the reports of the overseas visits supported by these grants please click on one of the following links.
- Azi Samsudin - Endourology Travelling Fellowship Programme
Visiting Training Fellowships
The Foundation received a restricted grant to provide a Training Fellowship for Ben Challacombe over a three year period.
- Ben Challacombe - Robotic Prostatectomy Fellowship in Melbourne, Australia
Following the success of this pilot, The Foundation is keen to establish a Training Fellowship programme for highly driven trainees who wish to specialise in robotically assisted surgery.
The details of the new programme are under development and will be reviewed by the Scientific and Education Committee in the near future.
