Imperial College London, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust have come together in a new agreement to undertake joint research studies and explore clinician-led integration of services into joint working units and programmes.
This alliance will bring together more than 460 cardiac and thoracic surgeons, consultants, cardiologists, professors and researchers. Together, they will exploit the critical mass of expertise and patients to deliver world-leading improvements in clinical care, education and research activities relating to heart and lung health.
The collaboration will take a bottom up clinician-led approach and will see patients from the two trusts enrolled in large scale joint research studies. At present the two Trusts provide care for 220,000 patient visits and carry out more than 4,200 cardiac surgery operations and more than 2,000 thoracic surgical procedures every year.
Professor Stephen Smith, chief executive of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, and Principal of the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London, said: "Our shared vision is to lead and be competitive on a global scale in cardiovascular and respiratory healthcare. This collaboration is crucial in breaking down the artificial organisational barriers among acute specialist care providers.
"Our aim is to focus all our collective energy and expertise on dramatically improving research collaboration, clinical care and ultimately patient outcomes."
Bob Bell, chief executive of Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, added: "This alliance will effectively create a cardiac and respiratory 'powerhouse' in the UK, of a unique size and stature, and with the credibility to play a pivotal role on the international stage. Patients will be the ultimate beneficiaries, with the combined expertise of our three organisations offering an unparalleled national collaboration. This will improve outcomes now and facilitate enhanced research into heart and lung disease for future generations.
"This is a significant step forward for cardiac and respiratory care in the UK, and we very much look forward to working closely with our associates over the coming months to identify opportunities for joint research and educational programmes and improved patient care."
Mark Spencer, general practitioner and co-clinical director of NHS North West London, added: "I welcome this collaboration between such leading specialists in cardiac and respiratory healthcare. The strengthening of these relationships will deliver world-leading healthcare for the benefit of patients both locally and from across the UK. I particularly look forward to exploring together the opportunities to improve cardiac and respiratory care in the community, closer to patients' homes."
The alliance of two highly respected Trusts and a leading university builds on existing and developing relationships such as the clinical trials unit and the regional aortic dissection service.
This service sees cardiac and vascular surgeons treating a large number of patients who undergo an emergency procedure to stop blood flowing between layers of the aortic wall.
The combined research capacity will create the scale of operation needed to bid for major projects, thereby attracting grants and funding that could otherwise go abroad. Currently Imperial College Healthcare is supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) through a comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre designation and Royal Brompton & Harefield by way of two Biomedical Research Units, one for cardiovascular and one for respiratory medicine. This strategic alliance will enable an integrated vision of NIHR support with capacity to strengthen the translation of research into improved patient care and outcomes.
The alliance will further benefit from three existing research centres at Imperial College London focused on aspects of cardiovascular and respiratory science. The British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence is exploring innovative ways to prevent, diagnose and treat heart and circulatory disease. The Medical Research Council (MRC)-Health Protection Agency Centre for Environment and Health is analysing the health of people across the UK and how this is affected by aspects of the environment in which they live and work. Lastly, the MRC-Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma is focused on understanding the relationship between asthma and the body's allergic mechanisms.
Investment in cutting-edge research and enhanced training and education opportunities across the three organisations will ensure the brightest talent is attracted and retained in the UK.
The collaboration will form part of the new Imperial College Academic Health Science System. This is an extension of the Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) and will see the AHSC create a system of associates from the tertiary and primary healthcare sectors to explore new patterns of care and achieve greater advances in healthcare delivery and outcomes.
Source: Imperial College London
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