Clinical Research Fellow hailed a future leader for the NHS

Prestigious fellowship aims to provide leadership development - News

Tuesday 22 January 2008
By Naomi Weston

A Fellowship aimed at nurturing the next generation of healthcare leaders has been awarded to a Clinical Research Fellow at Imperial College London.

Oliver Warren is one of only 15 medics appointed a Health Foundation Leadership Fellow.

The Fellowship is open to anyone working for the NHS, at any level, from clinicians to healthcare professionals and managers.

The scheme provides Fellows with two years of leadership development skills delivered via a mixture of one-to-one coaching sessions, group seminars and workshops. The award scheme also provides the opportunity for all participants to receive tailor-made training and personalised support.

Over the two years, Oliver will be working on a number of projects including the creation and delivery of a Leadership Development scheme for specialist registrars within NHS London, the strategic health authority.

In addition he will be working as a clinical advisor in surgery to the Local Hospitals Project initiative, another scheme at NHS London and he will spend the next six months on secondment to the office of Professor Lord Darzi, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health.

“The next two years of training will require me to develop and utilise skills not normally taught to surgical trainees,” explains Oliver. He adds: “I hope the fellowship allows me to develop my leadership skills, particularly my ability to take a long-term, strategic view of the way healthcare is delivered. I am keen to facilitate collaboration across different organisations and professional groups to ensure we improve quality and outcomes within the NHS, and the award provides the perfect platform for this.”

He also said: “I applied for the fellowship as I felt now was an excellent time in my career to develop my ability to lead within the healthcare sector. I wish to take on increasing leadership responsibility and combine a clinical and managerial role.”

The fellowship scheme, which started in 2004, recruits a new cohort on an annual basis. The fellows are selected based on an extensive application form and a residential assessment centre involving group discussions, presentations, interviews and psychometric testing.

Oliver studied as an undergraduate at Imperial where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1998, and Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 2001. He is a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and he will recommence full time clinical training as a surgical registrar within the London Deanery in August 2008.

He is coming to the end of a two year period of formalised research in the Department of BioSurgery and Surgical Technology at Imperial, which will lead to a Doctor of Medicine degree. In this time, he has been clinical lead on projects to enhance clinician-manager relations, develop leadership in trainee surgeons and empower patients to be involved in their own safety in hospital.

He continues to work part time as a surgical registrar at both St. Mary’s Hospital and Central Middlesex Hospital, and is heavily involved in teaching undergraduates in Imperial College’s Faculty of Medicine.

He has published over 20 scientific papers and authored 2 book chapters, on subjects including cardiac surgery, general surgery, mentoring, leadership, and surgical education and training and has presented his work both nationally and internationally.