We would like to extend a warm welcome to our newly appointed Public Engagement Regional Coordinators – or PERCs for short! The main role of the PERCs will be to help facilitate public engagement in their region. Here you will find a brief profile of your local PERC as well as their contact details. However, we are still looking to find PERCs for Trent. If you are interested in the role, please contact Samantha Jayaram, Press and Communications Manager at Samantha.jayaram@rcpath.org
England
London: Dr Camilla Rowan and Michaela Glynn
I am a pathology SpR working in the London area and have seen the positive impact of public engagement activities particularly amongst students and younger people. Public engagement activities can encourage a wider audience to understand the work of pathologists and encourage more people to take an interest in the specialty. Feedback from public engagement can also have a positive impact on medicine and pathology and will be a critical part of our future. I hope that by engaging young people in pathology early on, we can encourage a greater interest and understanding of science and pathology.
crowan@doctors.org.uk
As a trainee biochemist, I have been involved in some activities promoting pathology and I was surprised at the lack of understanding of what pathology is. I strongly believe in the aims and objectives of the College’s Public Engagement programme and am passionate about generating interest and understanding about the wide range of roles involved in pathology services. I think it is important for young people to recognise the variety of career paths available to them in pathology – and that you don’t necessarily need to be a medical doctor!
Michaela.glynn@nhs.net
South East England: Dr Meg Ashton-Key
I am passionate about pathology and keen to promote the role of pathology to students, hospital staff and members of the public. Pathology is a very important part of patient management but in many instances the role of pathology is under-recognised. Improving the profile of pathology has many potential benefits, including improving recruitment of all grades of staff and improving the understanding of the role of pathology in research. I aim to pass my enthusiasm on to the next generation of potential pathologists, biomedical scientists and laboratory workers!
meg@doctors.org.uk
South West England: Alyson Bryant
I fell into pathology by accident after my degree in biomedical science, there was no information about pathology jobs in my careers library at school or university, and I had no real idea of what pathology was. I have always been interested in promoting pathology, both to healthcare professionals and the public. Over the past three years I have organised work experience for students across pathology and become a STEMNET ambassador. I am very much looking forward to continuing to promote pathology.
alyson.bryant@gwh.nhs.uk
West Midlands: Kamaljit Chatha
My motivation to communicate with the public came about due to the lack of knowledge of the profession and the integral role that NHS scientists play in the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of patients. I wish to promote proactive engagement with the public in fun and interesting way which highlights the profession to those who did not even know that a pathology service exists beyond dead bodies. Additionally, I want to show that it consists of many different specialties that work together to ultimately provide answers that can directly affect the public.
kamaljit.chatha@heartofengland.nhs.uk
East of England: Dr Michael Eden and Dr Laszlo Igali
This role is an excellent opportunity to encourage pathologists and scientists to inform the general public about the importance of the work they do. I hope to help foster links between The Royal College of Pathologists and local schools and colleges, with the aim of introducing innovative educational resources that are particularly accessible to school and college students. This would include websites, media-rich content on portable electronic devices and downloadable podcasts, all of which could dovetail with the National Curriculum.It is my hope that this type of initiative will inspire a new generation of students to pursue a science-based career.
m.eden@nhs.net
I am a consultant histopathologist, working in the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. I am passionate about letting everyone know about our very interesting science, and I try to find every opportunity to take pathology closer to everyone. The website I created, taking pathology to the city alongside the local school outreach activities we created here, was very successful.
I would like to use my creative and IT-related talents to make the 2012 National Pathology Year as successful as the previous National Pathology Weeks.
laszlo.igali@nnuh.nhs.uk (www.norwichpathology.org)
North of England: Dr Sam Chilka
I’ve learned that the public are fascinated by pathology, especially when they discover the central role that all branches of pathology play in patient care. I aim to help pathologists and scientists communicate the importance of their work. I’d like to encourage participation in public engagement by as many individuals and pathology departments as possible, and in particular I would like to foster new and innovative ways of promoting our fields of expertise to the wider public. I hope that public engagement in the region will grow to be even better and more diverse than it already is, and I’m keen to hear from and assist anyone wishing to take part.
Sameer.Chilka@leedsth.nhs.uk
North East England: Caroline Addison
Since the introduction of National Pathology Week, I have been fortunate enough to be involved in several events with members of the public. I am always surprised and encouraged at the reaction. People are genuinely interested and amazed by the instrumentation used. Despite technological advancements, the use of bunsen burners and shelves of chemicals is still a widely held perception!
We can’t sit back and just expect awareness, we need to actively promote our careers and the profession. By taking on this role, I hope to be able to do this, as well as encouraging and supporting others.
caroline.addison@ghnt.nhs.uk
North West England: Dr Helen Jopling, Dr Jasna Krajecevic and Dr Vinita Mishra
I thoroughly enjoy my work as a trainee clinical scientist and am very keen to show the general public that pathology does not focus on dead bodies, but is essential to everyday life and health. I believe it is essential to the future of the profession to engage the public with pathology and the different scientific disciplines involved. I also believe it is beneficial to those within the profession to learn how to explain what they do and pass on their enthusiasm. As such, I am very keen to promote involvement in public engagement activities throughout the North West region.
Helen.Jopling@cmft.nhs.uk
Pathology has always been a challenging and dynamic specialty, hidden from public eye. Engaging the media provides an excellent opportunity to raise the public awareness of true science and its complexity. Exposing the multilayered process of everyday pathology work, from its initial steps to the final diagnosis and its correlation with a disease, becomes a powerful tool that gives a completely different insight to pathology. A complex, challenging and exciting discipline, pathology provides numerous answers that help to cure infirmities and improve human health.
jasna.krajecevic@whh.nhs.uk
Pathology is considered as a back-room specialty, not only among clinicians but also by the public. When I organised events for National Pathology Week, I was motivated to make the public aware of pathology. I was quite surprised when we organised workshops and seminars for students from local schools and found a great lack of awareness of the role of pathology in healthcare. I feel that public engagement is important to highlight the role of pathology in patient care and its vital role in NHS.
vinmishra@yahoo.co.uk
