New medicine course aims to train clinical researchers of the future

Graduate Entry Medicine course will train science graduates to become medical doctors over four years - News Release

Imperial College London News Release

For immediate release
Monday 4 June 2007

A new course that aims to turn science graduates into academic clinicians is announced today.

The Graduate Entry Medicine course at Imperial College London will train science graduates to become medical doctors over four years, rather than the six taken on the MBBS BSc course. It aims to create the clinical researchers of tomorrow by giving medical training to graduates who already have a solid grounding in science.

The new course will take 50 graduate students per year, with a minimum upper second class degree or PhD in a biological sciences area, complementing Imperial's undergraduate medical intake of 286 students per year. The first students on the new course will start in 2008.

Imperial's Rector, Sir Richard Sykes , said: "As medicine becomes ever more complex, we are going to need academic doctors - specialists who understand the science beneath the pathology. It's really important for us to provide graduates with a route into medicine because they can bring with them a breadth of scientific expertise, as well as having some life experience under their belt before they begin their medical training."

Professor Stephen Smith , Principal of the Faculty of Medicine, added: "Our new course will produce first-rate clinicians with the skills and expertise to undertake first-rate research. Such people will be crucial when it comes to tackling the medical problems of the future."

During the first, fast-track, year of the course, students will supplement their existing knowledge and undertake a clinical foundation course and an introductory clinical attachment. They will then join students on the existing six-year programme in their three clinical years.

An Open Day for the new course is being held on Wednesday 13 June. Further information can be found at www.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/teaching.

The Graduate Entry course forms part of wider plans to create a new Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC), to provide world-class healthcare for patients by integrating excellent research, education and training. Subject to consultation, the AHSC will see St Mary's Hospital and Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trusts merging into one NHS Trust and joining with the Faculty of Medicine of Imperial College. This approach - joining together hospitals with medical education and research institutes - is in place in other parts of the world and is proven to be a key factor in making them the world's best hospitals.

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For further information please contact:

Laura Gallagher
Senior Press Officer
Imperial College London
e-mail: l.gallagher@imperial.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)207 594 6702 or ext. 46702
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Notes to editors:

1. About Imperial College London

Rated as the world's ninth best university in the 2006 Times Higher Education Supplement University Rankings, Imperial College London is a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research that attracts 11,500 students and 6,000 staff of the highest international quality.

Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and management and delivers practical solutions that improve quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture.

With 62 Fellows of the Royal Society among our current academic staff and distinguished past members of the College including 14 Nobel Laureates and two Fields Medallists, Imperial's contribution to society has been immense. Inventions and innovations include the discovery of penicillin, the development of holography and the foundations of fibre optics. This commitment to the application of our research for the benefit of all continues today with current focuses including interdisciplinary collaborations to tackle climate change and mathematical modelling to predict and control the spread of infectious diseases.

The College's 100 years of living science will be celebrated throughout 2007 with a range of events to mark the Centenary of the signing of Imperial's founding charter on 8 July 1907. Website: www.imperial.ac.uk