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2020 Fellowships


Winners of the SCTS-Ethicon Fellowship Awards 2020

2020 SCTS-Ethicon NTN Trainee Travelling Fellowship: Cardiothoracic transplantation

Aiman Alassar, Royal Papworth Hospital Specialist Registrar East of England Training Programme to visit the Stanford cardiothoracic transplant centre to acquire the full skills set in cardiothoracic transplantation and mechanical circulatory support under Dr William Hiesinger.

2020 SCTS-Ethicon NTN Trainee Travelling Fellowship: Thoracic

Anthony Chambers, Golden Jubilee National Hospital  Specialist Registrar Scottish Training Programme to visit the Guys Hospital London to again experience in Robotic Thoracic Surgery under Mr Routledge.

2020 SCTS-Ethicon NTN Trainee Travelling Fellowship: Cardiac

Omar Jarral, St Thomas’ Hospital Specialist Registrar London Training Programme to visit the Duke University & University of Pennsylvania to again experience as an advanced aortic, endovascular and transcatheter valve fellow under Drs Chad Hughes and Joe Bavaria respectively.

The Education committee would like thank Ethicon for their support to offer these valuable fellowships to our NTN members.

Winners of the SCTS-Ionescu Annual Fellowship Awards 2020

The Marian and Christina Ionescu Travelling Fellowship for a consultant :1 award, £10,000

Balacumaraswami Lognathen Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon from University Hospitals of North Midlands  to visit Dr Keita Kikuchi in the Ichinomiya Nishi Heart Centre, Aichi, Japan to observe and learn technical aspects of multi vessel minimally invasive CABG using bilateral mammary artery conduits.

SCTS-Ionescu Consultant Team Fellowships : 2 awards, £15,000 each

Enoch Akowuah, Consultant Cardiac Surgeon in James Cook University Hospitals to visit  Prof Doug Murphy in the Emory University School of Medicine Atlanta USA and Prof Czerny Prague to learn and develop robotic mitral surgery.

Apostolos Nakas, Consultant Thoracic surgeon in University Hospitals of Leicester to visit NYU Langone Health and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, New York, USA, Duke University Medical Centre, North Carolina, USA and University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland to focus on robotic thoracic surgery, mesothelioma and minimally invasive thoracic surgery.

SCTS-Ionescu NTN Trainee Travelling Fellowship: 1 award, £10,000 

Jason Ali, Royal Papworth Hospital specialist Registrar East of England Training Programme to visit the Duke University Medical Centre to learn from Prof John Haney on Cardiothoracic Transplantation and Mechanical circulatory devices. The trip will also focus on donor management and perioperative care.

SCTS-Ionescu Non-NTN Surgical Fellowships: 2 awards, £10,000 each

Saqib Qureshi Clinical Fellow in Nottingham City Hospital to support travel for a fellowship in Ottawa Heart Institute fellowship for holistic cardiac surgery including minimally invasive coronary and TAVI.

Alessia Rossi Senior Clinical Fellow St Bartholomew’s Hospital London to learn minimal access Mitral (and aortic)surgery, focusing more on mitral valve surgery in the Heart Hospital Gaetano Paquinucci Massa under Dr Marco Solinas.

SCTS-Ionescu Non-NTN small travel awards: 2 award, £5,000 each

Anas Boulemden Senior Clinical Fellow in Nottingham University Hospital for a clinical immersion under Mr Ulrich Rosenthal in the Royal Brompton Hospital to learn complete aortic care pathway and technique of root and arch surgery including aortic adjunct procedures.

Florentina Popescu Clinical Research Fellow University Hospitals of Leicester to visit Toronto General Hospital for clinical immersion in Cardiothoracic Transplant under Prof Shaf Keshavjee.

SCTS-Ionescu Nursing & Allied Health Professional Fellowships: 2 awards, £5,000 each

Paula Agostini Senior Physiotherapist Birmingham Heartlands Hospital and Senior Lecturer University of Birmingham to visit Alfred Hospital Monash University Melbourne and Auckland Hospital New Zealand to focus on enhanced recovery and prehabilitation.

Nehru Devan Senior SCP in University Hospitals of Manchester, Wythenshawe to visit Prof Robert Cerfolio’s unit in NYU Longone Lung Cancer Centre. This visit will focus on understanding and assisting in Robotic assisted thoracic surgery.

SCTS-Ionescu Medical Student Fellowships: 2 awards, £500 each

Lauren Shipperbottom from the University of Birmingham to visit the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. The elective clinical immersion would cover cardiology and paediatric cardiac surgery under Prof David Barron.

Keeran Vickneson from the University of Dundee to visit National University of Singapore under Prof V Sorokin for a 6-week clinical immersion.

Winners of SCTS-Ionescu 90 Fellowship Awards in March 2020

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 Children Glasgow 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 Ravishankar, 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 Bao 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 Education committee would like thank Mr Ionescu and Ethicon for their benevolence and the opportunity to offer these valuable fellowships to our members.