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keele:NEWS
News
Major boost
for primary care research at Keele
University as national arthritis
charity awards £2.5m funding
A major new centre promoting research into
primary care has been created at Keele University
with funding of £2.5m over five years from a
leading arthritis charity.
The Arthritis Research Campaign National Primary
Care Centre at Keele will have a direct benefit on
the thousands of people in the UK who suffer
from painful joint and muscle problems.
Around 20 per cent of UK adults consult their
GP about arthritis or a related musculoskeletal
condition every year. Despite this, research into
the most appropriate methods of investigation
and treatment in primary care, which is carried
out by physiotherapists and nurses as well as GPs,
has attracted little funding and attention.
The new centre will not only investigate the
most effective treatments for people with
musculoskeletal conditions but also test new
ways of delivering these treatments in everyday
clinical practice, so making a real difference to
the lives of patients.
One of its top priority areas will be to tackle
the problem of ensuring that people with
arthritis stick to exercise regimes, in order to
reduce their pain and maintain their ability to do
everyday activities.
Director of the new centre, Professor Peter Croft,
said he hoped that it would have a considerable
impact on the way people with conditions such
as back pain and osteoarthritis are treated, and
increase the status of primary care research.
“Primary care – where most people with painful
joints and muscles are treated – has often been
the poor partner in the NHS, lacking the size
and focus of the hospital,” said Professor Croft.
“Until recently, research in primary care has
been very much a second class citizen receiving
only a fraction of the funding that hospitals
can attract.
“Our new centre will give a
strong message that primary
care is important and that a
major national charity values
research in that setting.”
NEW DEPUTY
VICE-CHANCELLOR
FOR KEELE UNIVERSITY
Rama Thirunamachandran
took up the post of Deputy
Vice-Chancellor of Keele
University in June 2008.
He was formerly Director for Research, Innovation and Skills at the Higher
Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) with overall responsibility
for the strategic direction of HEFCE’s research, knowledge transfer, and
employer engagement and skills policies.
Before joining HEFCE he was Head of Research and Enterprise at Royal
Holloway (University of London) and Director of Royal Holloway Enterprise
Ltd. A Cambridge graduate in Geography and Natural Sciences, he has also
held posts at the University of Bristol and King’s College London.
Keele University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dame Janet Finch, said:
“Rama Thirunamachandran brings to Keele an unrivalled experience of the
higher education sector and its interactions with government, and a very
broad understanding of how universities operate.”
Commenting on his appointment Rama Thirunamachandran said: “I am
honoured and delighted to be joining Keele at this exciting time in the
University’s development. As the first higher education institution established
after the Second World War, Keele led the way with a distinctive mission
to promote broad based higher education with dual honours programmes
and multi and interdisciplinary research. Despite considerable changes in UK
higher education over the past 60 years Keele has maintained its distinctive
mission and character true to its founding principles. I look forward to
working with my new colleagues and contributing to Keele’s development
into the ultimate 21st century campus university.”
Queen’s
birthday
honour
for Keele University Vice-Chancellor
Keele’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Janet Finch was awarded a DBE, Dame
Commander of the British Empire, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours
List for services to Social Science and to Higher Education.
In her 12 years as Vice-Chancellor, Professor Finch has seen the University
expand substantially, masterminded the introduction of a new Medical
School and overseen the development of a Science and Business Park
which is widely recognised as making a major contribution to the
regeneration of North Staffordshire.
She has also been a member or chair of numerous education-,
regeneration- and health-related bodies, as well as being a member
of the BBC Charter Review and chair of the Council for Science
and Technology.
Professor Dame Janet Finch said: “I am surprised and very honoured
to have been granted this recognition. I have been fortunate, in my
professional life, to have been given opportunities to provide leadership
not only of the University, but also in national bodies where there is an
opportunity to make a difference. It is a privilege to have been able to
make a contribution in the development of social research, in advice to
government on science issues, in the relationships between Universities
and the health service, and in embedding the diversity agenda in
the University sector. I hope to go on making such contributions for
many years to come.”
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forever:keele | issue : four : April 2009