Section 3

Outline of different paediatric research by country / unit

There are multiple different overseas research units, each of which have strongest links to specific countries. This is an evolving list and meant only as a brief introduction to different avenues. Please contact us if you would like to add further countries and opportunities. For initial simplicity, we have grouped this by UK institution.  

1)   Oxford:

The Oxford Tropical network has a wide variety of projects, linked primarily to East Africa and South-East Asia. It has a major link to Kenya and partners with the Kenyan Medical Research Institute, which is also supported by the Wellcome Trust KEMRI have a broad range of work including infectious diseases, malnutrition, health systems and epidemiology. In Thailand, tropical medicine is focused within the Mahidol unit.  There are numerous other research groups and principal investigators. For those interested in vaccinology the Oxford vaccine group also do work in Nepal.

2)   Liverpool

Global child health research takes place at both the University of Liverpool and Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and have extensive links with different research centers around the world.  Both institutions are partners in the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Clinical Research Facility situated in Blantyre, Malawi, one of Welcome’s major overseas programs https://www.mlw.mw/. 

3)   London

a)         Imperial:

Imperial College London has its Centre for Paediatrics and child health, although overseas work tends to specialize in paediatric infectious diseases and critical care.  

b) LSHTM:

The MARCH Centre provides a central hub of LSHTM’s research relating to Paediatrics. 

c) UCL: Institute of global health

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/global-health/

d) QMUL

Queen Mary University of London has departments of global public health and child health. The Prendergast group researches the links between infection, malnutrition and long-term outcomes (including the SHINE study), with particular links to Zvitambo Institute in Zimbabwe.

Other U.K. institutions with strong global child health links include Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol and Leeds.  

Case studies:

Example: Joe Piper

I went to different Medsin conferences and overseas medicine talks throughout medical school and it was there I became interested in malnutrition from a talk by James Berkley. I was fortunate in spending my elective in Kenya and Uganda and visited the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI). I applied and got an academic foundation placement with Melissa Gladstone and initiated a Cochrane review examining the effects of Water and Sanitation interventions on child development.

 I then emailed Andrew Prendergast who had contributed to this Paediatrics within UK training 

I also contacted a few other researchers. After foundation training, I took a year out (an “F3”) and started planning this 6 months before. I arranged a 6 month placement with KEMRI, in the severe malnutrition unit at Kilifi which had ongoing research projects. (I did locum shifts and found a charity linked to my medical school which awarded me a small grant). I also arranged to do 6 weeks in Zimbabwe at Zvitambo research institute which performs research on stunting. Before leaving for Kenya I did the diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene (DTM&H) at Liverpool (which is really interesting and enjoyable but not essential for overseas research).

I was fortunate in getting a London-based ACF which enabled me to return to Kenya and Zimbabwe during my ST2 and ST3 years to continue some research projects on malnutrition. After MRCPCH exams and ST4 at Barnet, I applied and got a 3 year Wellcome  Trust fellowship.