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Winners of SCTS-Ionescu 90 Fellowship Awards in March 2020


Winners of SCTS-Ionescu 90 Fellowship Awards 2020

The Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain & Ireland (SCTS) invited applications for the Special SCTS-Ionescu-90 Fellowships to celebrate the 90th birthday of our benefactor Mr Marian Ionescu. The extended range of the Fellowships was to allow all SCTS members to benefit – Consultants, all grades of Trainees, Nurses, Allied Health Professionals and Medical Students.

Marian Ionescu is a retired cardiac surgeon from Leeds. He is a surgical innovator and pioneer who introduced various techniques in cardiac surgery as well as invented the pericardial valve. After a successful cardiac surgical career he focused on mountaineering and has scaled most peaks in the world. Mr Ionescu has supported the SCTS with his donations to the society for educational activities for many years. His contributions over the years have enabled the SCTS-Ionescu University, SCTS-Ionescu Fellowships, the Perspectives in Cardiothoracic Surgery and recently the Ionescu Foundation courses.

SCTS was honoured and privileged to announce this special round of application with Mr Ionescu’s continued support to the wider cardiothoracic multidisciplinary community which had an excellent response from themembers.

The applications were advertised in the SCTS website as well as by flyers to all the members. The deadline was the 15th January 2020.

All application were scored to the SCTS Scoring Matrix by a panel of SCTS Officers and the scores were averaged to rank the candidates. The final awardees were finalised by unanimous decision by the SCTS officers and education leads.

SCTS- Ionescu 90 Travelling Fellowship for a consultant : 1 award, £10,000
Indu Deglurkar Consultant Cardiac Surgeon University Hospitals of Wales Cardiff to visit Harvard school of public health and University hospitals to observe operational management of cardiac services including operating theatres transformation process.

SCTS-Ionescu 90 Consultant Team Fellowships: 3 awards, £15,000 each
Ehab Bishay Consultant thoracic Surgeon Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, to attend Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital and Isalla clinic Zwolle Netherlands for a clinical immersion in robotic assisted thoracic surgery. The Team will be supervised by Mr Steve Woolley in Liverpool and Dr Ghada Shahin in Zwolle.

Jonathan Hyde Consultant Cardiac Surgeon in Royal Sussex University Hospitals Brighton to take his team to the Prince of Wales Hospitals Hong Kong . The team will focus on all aspects of Aortic Surgery under the tutelage of Prof Malcolm Underwood.

Ed Peng Consultant Cardiac Surgeon in Royal Hospital for Sick Children Edinburgh to visit Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford Paolo Alto California. The team will visit Prof Hanley’s unit to learn from their experience on pulmonary atresia, VDS and major aortopulmonary collaterals with emphasise on complete uni-focalisation and incorporation of all segments.

SCTS-Ionescu 90 NTN Trainee Travelling Fellowship: 1 award, £10,000
Simon Duggan, Specialist Registrar in Wessex deanery Southampton to go on a fellowship to Service de Chirugie Thoracique, Cardiaque and vascularie in Rennes. The fellowship will focus on aortic surgical training under Prof Verhoye.

 SCTS-Ionescu 90 NTN small travel award: 1 award, £5,000
Azhar Hussain from Castle Hill Hospital Hull Specialist registrar in Yorkshire Deanery to visit the National Institute of Cardiovascular disease in Karachi. The visit aims to get focused experience in mitral valve surgery under prof Rathore.

SCTS-Ionescu 90 Non-NTN Surgical Fellowships: 2 awards, £10,000 each
Joyce Thekkudan, Senior Clinical fellow  Glenfield Hospital Leicester to visit the Rigshospital Copenhagen to observe Prof Hansen. The fellowship also involves a visit to the Wayne state university Detroit to observe robotic thoracic surgery and thoracic trauma as well as health research.

Imtiaz Manoly , Senior Clinical Fellow James Cook University Hospital Middlesboro to visit the Berlin Heart centre to focus on complex aortic surgery and TAVR under Prof Kempfert and Falk. It will also cover a visit to Beijing Azhen Hospital to observe complex aortic surgery.

SCTS-Ionescu 90 Non-NTN small travel awards: 1 award, £5,000 each
Emmanouil Kapetanakis Thoracic Surgical Research fellow   Mater Misericordiae University Hospital Dublin to visit the George Washington University Hospital Washington for a holistic clinical experience in thoracic surgery under Prof Keith Mortman.

SCTS-Ionescu 90 Nursing & Allied Health Professional Fellowships: 2 awards, £5,000 each
Rebecca Boyles, Research Nurse University Hospitals of Leicester to visit University Hospitals Zurich, NYU Langone Health , New York, USA, Duke University Medical Center, North Carolina, USA to observe clinical practice in enhance recovery, perioperative care and research pathways.

Jody Stafford, senior Clinical Perfusionist University Hospitals of Wales to attend the simulation Instructor course and Simulation conference to gain insights into using simulation in Cardiopulmonary bypass training.

SCTS-Ionescu 90 Medical Student Fellowships: 4 awards, £500 each
Jamie Walsh, Queen University Belfast to visit Children’s Health Ireland Crumlin to get clinically immersed in Paediatric cardiac surgery.

Ramanish Ravishanker, University of Edinburgh to visit New York Presbyterian Hospital in Columbia University to clinically immerse in high volume cardiac surgery.

Savannah Gysling, University of Nottingham to visit the Royal Papworth Hospital Cambridge, Great Ormond Street London and University Hospital Zurich for  a comprehensive clinical immersion in paediatric cardiac surgery, transplant surgery and thoracic surgery.

Ha Baro Trung Lee (Tommy) from University of Edinburgh to visit the Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam. This visit will offer insight into various cardiothoracic procedures including VATS and valvular heart operations.

The SCTS would like to thank Mr Ionescu for his continuous support to enable us offer this array of fellowships to our surgical fraternity.

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