Imperial’s Academic Health Science Centre status is confirmed

The partnership between Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has been officially designated as an Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) by the UK Department of Health.

AHSC status, which has been awarded to five partnerships in the UK, signals international excellence in biomedical research, education and patient care. The status was awarded after a six-month review process led by an international panel of medical experts.

Panel member Victor Dzau, Chancellor for Health Affairs of Duke University, and CEO of Duke University Health System, said, “I have been studying the issue of how academic health sciences centres can play a role in the transformation of healthcare for a number of years and I’m sure that many of the applications we reviewed will contribute to this transformation.”

“The centres which are being designated are the exemplars of partnership and innovation and I know they will all [….] help to enable global competitiveness here in the UK.”

Alongside Imperial the other successful centres are Cambridge University Health Partners; King's Health Partners; Manchester AHSC and UCL Partners.

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Imperial College London have been working together as an AHSC since October 2007. Stephen Smith, Chief Executive of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Principal of the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London, said performance during its first 18 months clearly illustrated the benefits of bringing healthcare services, research and education together under single leadership.

“During our first 18 months as an AHSC, we have achieved the lowest standardised mortality rates in the country of any multispecialty NHS Trust, developed and introduced a new test that can diagnose TB more accurately than ever before and pioneered the use of robotic technology to treat complex aneurysms, previously considered too high risk to operate on.”