MFT doctor named as the Young Researcher of 2021/22 by RCEM and NIHR

The NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) have named Dr Anisa Jafar as the Young Researcher of the Year. These joint awards, in their fifth year, recognise outstanding contributions of NHS consultants and trainees in the conduct of clinical research in the field of Emergency Medicine (EM)

Dr Jafar is presently undertaking an NIHR Academic Clinical Lectureship and is an ST6  Junior Doctor in Emergency Medicine at the Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) – part of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT). and the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute (HCRI) at the University of Manchester. The judging committee found Dr Jafar to be an excellent role model for young researchers and were enthused by Dr Jafar’s commitment to global health (GH) and her well thought-out research project.

Dr Jafar is incredibly dedicated to cultivating research collaboration for GH and EM. Dr Jafar is one of the creators of the Global Emergency Care Collaborative (GECCo), a platform that engages colleagues who are interested in GH and EM. The platform has, amongst other GH activities, enabled collaboration between researchers: mapping UK engagement in GH in collaboration with the RCEM GEM committee; engaging EM colleagues in quick-fire literature reviews in collaboration with the African Federation of Emergency Medicine; leading a team in using the annual Global Emergency Medicine Literature Review as a proxy for international EM engagement in GH and Dr Jafar supports junior colleagues to develop their research profiles.

Dr Jafar’s proposed research aims to understand how GH impacts EM in the UK. By interviewing EM healthcare professionals who have GH experience and querying how this experience impacts their practice, Dr Jafar hopes to identify the barriers and enablers for integrating GH into EM. 

Contemplating the award, Dr Jafar said “I plan to mentor and support junior EM colleagues to investigate the role played, and potential created, by GH work conducted by those in UK Emergency Care. Winning this award is a real opportunity to expand the capacity for GH research amongst those in UK emergency care so I’m really pleased.”

Professor Rick Body, Group Director for Research and Innovation at MFT said:

“Anisa’s work to improve global health has been outstanding and she fully deserves this prestigious award. As an NIHR clinical lecturer, Anisa is already one of Emergency Medicine’s brightest up and coming stars. It is excellent to see this national recognition of her research. I will look forward to supporting Anisa’s flourishing career as a clinical academic.”

Professor Jason Smith, a Consultant in EM at Derriford Hospital for the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP), was named as the Principal Investigator of the Year. 

Professor Body continued:

“I was also very pleased to see Professor Jason Smith, a Consultant in EM at Derriford Hospital for the University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP), named NIHR CRN and RCEM Principal Investigator of the Year. Professor Smith was local Principal Investigator for two recent MFT-sponsored studies: the Pre-hospital Evaluation of Sensitive Troponin (PRESTO) study and the Facilitating Accelerated Clinical Validation of Novel Diagnostics for COVID-19 (FALCON C-19) study. His contribution as a principal investigator was outstanding, and we are extremely grateful for his oversight and support of recruitment to both studies”.

Recognising outstanding research contributions 

Julie Solomon, NIHR CRNCC, King’s College London, said: 

“The NIHR CRN RCEM awards have once again built on the strength of clinical research collaboration, particularly during an extremely pressured year. The applications showed an increasing emphasis on working as a team with colleagues from across the spectrum of roles and responsibilities as well as with patients and the public. The awards confirm that.”