Imperial College London has come together with its clinical partners in the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation in a new agreement to undertake joint research studies and explore clinician-led integration of services in joint working units and programmes.
The alliance brings together more than 460 cardiac and thoracic surgeons, consultants, cardiologists, professors and researchers. The aim is to exploit this critical mass of expertise and high number of patients to improve clinical care, education and research activities relating to heart and lung health.
The collaboration will take a 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.
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, said, “This will improve outcomes now and facilitate enhanced research into heart and lung disease for future generations.”
The alliance of the two hospital trusts and Imperial College builds on existing and developing relationships, such as the clinical trials unit. 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. The alliance will further benefit from three existing research centres at Imperial College London focused on aspects of cardiovascular and respiratory science.
It is hoped also that investment in research and enhanced training and education opportunities across the three organisations will ensure the best talent is attracted.
The collaboration forms part of the Imperial College Academic Health Science System. This is an extension of the Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre, 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.
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