2021 Fellowships

The SCTS-AZ Fellowship 2021 was awarded to Mr Alexander Smith, a London Thoracic Trainee who is out of programme this year undertaking a Master’s Degree in Medical Statistics on a full time basis at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. We would like to congratulate Alex and wish him all the best with his studies.

We are delighted to announce the Ethicon 2021 fellowship winners:

Stuart Grant - ST8/Academic Clinical Lecturer, Wythenshawe Hospital has been accepted at Toronto General Hospital and will start his fellowship in January 2022 for 12 months. The focus of Stuart's fellowship will be advanced aortic surgery, tructural cardiac surgery and transcatheter techniques.

James Barr - ST8, Guy’s Hospital, London has been accepted at Toronto General Hospital specialising in Lung transplantation and thoracic surgery and will start his fellowship in October 2021 for 12 months.

James will spend six months working in the department of thoracic surgery and the remaining six months of my fellowship in lung transplantation.

Thomas Tsitias - ST8 St. George’s Hospital, London has been accepted at Toronto General Hospital in the Department of General Thoracic Surgery and started his fellowship in January 2021 for 12 months.

Thomas will be working and regularly operating next to the attending surgeons that routinely perform major pulmonary resections (incl. bronchoplastic sleeve), resection of mediastinal tumors, chest wall reconstruction and tracheal resection.

SCTS is honoured and privileged to announce the winners of the final round of fellowships with Mr Ionescu’s support to the wider cardiothoracic multidisciplinary community.

The applications were advertised in the SCTS website as well as by flyers to all the members. The deadline was the 15th August 2021.
All applications were scored to the SCTS Scoring Matrix by a panel of SCTS Officers and the scores were averaged to rank the candidates. The final recommendations were finalised by unanimous decision by the scoring teams for various streams and are submitted for consideration by the President and Mr Ionescu.

We can confirm that all applications were duly considered and recommended after section leads and relevant teams due to the spread of experience and variation in the speciality.

SCTS Education thanks Mr Ionescu for his generosity with this final round of fellowships and all the support for the various ventures of SCTS education over the years which has enabled us to offer all these awards to our membership for the wider benefit of our patients.

Ionescu Consultant Team Fellowship:

Mr Sridhar Rathinam, Consultant Thoracic Surgeon, University Hospitals of Leicester

Ionescu NTN Trainee Travelling Fellowship:

Mr Ahmed Al-Adhami Scottish NTN from Golden Jubilee National Hospital

Ms Katie O'Sullivan Cleveland Clinic Foundation

Ms Caroline Toolan, NTN Northwest currently in Wythenshawe Hospital

Miss Jennifer Whiteley NTN in Scotland in the Golden Jubilee National Hospital

Ionescu NTN early years (ST1-4) travel award:

Miss Alina-Maria Budacan, NTN West midlands currently in New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton.

Miss Georgia Layton East Midlands NTN in Glenfield Hospital

Ionescu Trust Appointed Doctors Fellowships:

Miss Maria Cannoletta, Senior Clinical Fellow, Royal Brompton Hospital

Dr Andreas Gkikas, Research Fellow in Thoracic Surgery, Glenfield Hospital and Research student UCL

Ionescu Trust Appointed Doctors small travel grants:

Mr Benjamin Irene Omoregbee, Specialty Registrar (Trust Grade) Castle Hill Hospital

Dr Anchal Jain, Clinical Fellow in Cardiothoracic Surgery, Royal Stoke University Hospital

Ionescu small travel awards for FYs and CTs:

Dr Ramanish Ravishankar, FY1 in Scarborough General Hospital

Dr Savannah Gysling, Academic Foundation Doctor in Nottingham University Hospitals 

Ms Shwe Yamin Oo, CT2 in Musgrove Park Hospital

Ionescu Nursing & Allied Health Professional Fellowships:

Mrs Xiao Liu, Advanced Nurse Practitioner, University Hospital Southampton

Ionescu Medical Student Fellowships:

Asmita Singhania, Medical student, University of Manchester

Alexander Reynolds, Medical Student, Swansea University Medical School

Miss Kirstie Kirkley, Medical Student, University of Bristol Medical School

Sean Pattinson, Medical Student Newcastle University

Denis Ajdarpasic, Medical Student, University of Nottingham

George Liu, Medical Student, Anglia Ruskin University School of Medicine

We are delighted to announce the fellowship winners of the Ionescu Fellowship 2021 - Round 2:

Ionescu Travelling Fellowship for a consultant:

-Mr Vipin Mehta, Consultant Cardiac and Transplant Surgeon, Manchester University Hospital

Ionescu Consultant Team Fellowships

-Ms Carin Van Doorn, Consultant Congenital Cardiac Surgeon Leeds Teaching Hospital

-Mr Hazem Fallouh, Consultant Thoracic Surgeon University Hospitals of Birmingham

Ionescu NTN fellowships

-Mr Damian Balmforth, London NTN, St Bartholomew Hospitals London

  -Mr Oliver Harrison, Wessex NTN, University Hospital Southampton

-Mr Nikhil Patil, West Midlands NTN, Royal Stoke University Hospital

 -Mr Umar Hamid, Northern Irish NTN, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast

Ionescu NTN Early years travel fellowships

-Mr Mayooran Nithiyandan, East Midlands NTN, Nottingham University Hospitals

Ionescu Trust Appointed Doctors fellowships

-Mr Adnan Raza, Senior Clinical Fellow, Nottingham University Hospital

 -Mr Riccardo Abbasciano, Clinical Research Fellow, University Hospitals of Leicester 

Ionescu FY2s and CTs fellowships

 -Mr Jason Trevis, Academic FY in James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough

 -Ms Rachel Chubsey, CT2 in Vascular Surgery, University Hospitals of Leicester

Ionescu AHP Fellowships

-Mr Janesh Nair, Senior Cardiothoracic SCP in Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester

 -Ms Yi Wang, Senior Scrub Nurse in Harefield Hospital, London

Ionescu Medical student fellowships

-Josh Brown, Queen’s University Belfast

-Clarissa Ng Yin Ling, Kings College London

-Momna Raja, Brighton and Sussex Medical School

-Bertram Harrington, Newcastle University

We are delighted to announce the fellowship winners of the Ionescu Fellowships 2021 - Round 1:

The Marian and Christina Ionescu Travelling Fellowship for a consultant 2021

-Mr Bilal Kirmani, Consultant Cardiac Surgeon, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital

Ionescu Consultant Team Fellowships

-Mr Attilio Lotto, Consultant Congenital Cardiac Surgeon, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool

-Mr Manoj Purohit, Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Blackpool Victoria Hospital

-Mr Ioannis Dimarakis, Consultant Cardiac and Cardiothoracic Transplant Surgeon,  Wythenshawe Hospital MFT

-Mr Dincer Aktuerk, Consultant Cardiac Surgeon, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London

Ionescu NTN fellowships

-Mr Tom Combellack, ST8 Cardiothoracic Registrar, University Hospital of Wales & University Hospital, Cardiff

-Mr Yama Haqzad, ST8, Castle Hill Hospital  

Ionescu NTN Early years travel fellowships

-Mr Amer Harky, ST4, Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital

-Mr Syed Faisal Hashmi, Senior Thoracic Fellow, Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester

-Mr Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed Osman, Senior clinical fellow in cardiothoracic transplant at Royal Papworth Hospital

Ionescu FY2s and CTs fellowships

-Mr Jordan Green, Academic Foundation Programme, Hull University Teaching Hospitals

-Mr Omar Zibdeh, Foundation year 2, Charing Cross/Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College 

Ionescu Medical student fellowships

-Anoop Singh Sumal,  5th year medical student, Cambridge University (Cambridge University Hospitals)

-Caleb Johnson, Year 3 Graduate-Entry Medical Student, Warwick Medical School

-Jeevan Francis, 4th Year Medical Student, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh

-Rishab Makam, Medical Student, Castle Hill Hospital

SCTS was honoured and privileged to announce this special round of fellowships with Mr Ionescu’s continued support to the wider cardiothoracic multidisciplinary community to celebrate 50 years of the Pericardial valve.

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

All applications were scored to the SCTS Scoring Matrix by a panel of SCTS Officers and the scores were averaged to rank the candidates.

All applications were duly considered and recommended after section leads and relevant teams, due to the spread of experience and variation in the speciality.

The final recommendations were finalised by unanimous decision by the scoring teams for various streams and approved by the President and Mr Ionescu.

Ionescu Travelling Fellowship for a consultant: 2 awards, £10,000 each

Mr Ulrich Stock, The Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital, London to visit the Albert Lung Transplantation programme in Melbourne. The visit will focus on donor receipt mismatch solutions and pneumoreduction.

Mr Nizar Asadi, The Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospital, to visit Prof W Fang in the Shanghai Chest Hospital to understand principles in pathways of care in uniportal VATS lobectomy as well as gain exposure in Airway surgery.

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

Mr Kandadai Rammohan, University Hospitals of Manchester to the Shanghai Pulmonary Unit to understand principles in pathways of care in uniportal VATS lobectomy, as well as gain insight into process management of lung cancer patients.

Mr Vivek Srivastava, Oxford University Hospitals to visit Mr R Deshpande in Kings College London, to focus on minimally invasive mitral valvular repair techniques.

Ionescu NTN Trainee Travelling Fellowship: 2 awards, £10,000 each

Kunal Bhakri , Specialist Registrar in Royal Papworth Hospital to undergo a Robotic Thoracic Surgery Fellowship in the Guy’s Hospital London under Mr Routledge.

Adam Daly, Specialist Registrar in Mater Miseriecordae University Hospital, Dublin to undergo a fellowship in the Cleveland Clinic under Prof Svensson focussing on aortic and endo vascular aortic surgery.

Ionescu NTN early years (ST1-4): travel awards: 1 award, £5,000

Kathryn Freystater, Specialty Registrar in Freeman Hospital Newcastle, to visit the cardiac surgery department in University Hospital of Vienna.

The primary goal of the fellowship is to gain insight in the latest minimally invasive and hybrid cardiac surgical techniques under Prof Andreas.

Ionescu SAS Surgical Fellowships: 2 awards, £10,000 each

Periklis Perikleous, Clinical fellow, Harefield Hospital, London to visit the Shanghai Pulmonary Unit to focus on minimally invasive surgery and uniportal VATS lobectomy.

Kudzai Kutywayo, Clinical research fellow, Glenfield hospital, Leicester to visit University Hospital of Zurich to focus on Lung volume reduction surgery and Mesothelioma and to visit the 1st Affiliated Hospitals of the Gaungzhou Medical University to focus on VATS surgery.

Ionescu small travel awards for FYs and CTs: 2 award, £5,000 each

Nikhil Sahdev Academic FY2 in Royal London Hospital to visit the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. The fellowship will focus on all aspects of cardiac surgery and cardiothoracic transplantation.

Neil Marshall, Academic FY in Salisbury District Hospital to visit the Hospital for Sick children in Toronto. The fellowship will focus on paediatric cardiac surgery under Mr Barron.

Ionescu Nursing & Allied Health Professional Fellowships: 1 award, £5,000

Michelle Brennan, Preoperative care practitioner, St George’s Hospital London to visit Cleveland Clinic to gain insight into pre-operative preparation and patient pathways in cardiac surgery.

Ionescu Medical Student Fellowships: 3 awards, £500 each

Hanad Ahmed, University of Southampton to visit the Hospital for Sick children, Toronto for an insight into Paediatric cardiac surgery under Mr Barron

Sam Jenkins, University of Sheffield to visit the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham under the supervision of Mr M Bhabra as part of elective placement to gain further skills in surgery and cardiothoracic surgery.

Amerikos Argyriou, University of Manchester to visit Waikato Hospital under the supervision of Dr NK Kejriwal as part of elective placement to gain further skills in surgery and cardiothoracic surgery.

SCTS Education thanks Mr Ionescu for his generosity with these additional fellowships in 2020 at the 50th Anniversary of the Pericardial valve which has enabled us to offer all these awards to our membership for the wider benefit of our patients.