Dr Jienchi Doward and Dr Kelly Birtwell have each received a 2025 Outstanding Early Career Researcher Award. These awards are jointly delivered by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Scientific Foundation Board and the Society for Academic Primary Care (SAPC).
Jienchi, an Academic Clinical Lecturer in our Infections, Respiratory and Clinical Care team, was awarded the Academic General Practitioner award, while Kelly, whose postdoc is supervised by Professor Sophie Park, Professor of Primary Care and Clinical Education in our department, received the Primary Care Scientist award.
Previously known as the Yvonne Carter Award, the Outstanding Early Career Researcher awards are presented annually to one Academic General Practitioner and one Primary Care Scientist. They highlight individuals whose work advances academic primary care through high-quality, relevant research and meaningful collaboration with patients and the public. Each winner receives a £500 grant to support professional development, including travel and conference attendance. Winners are also invited to present their work at the RCGP Annual Conference and the SAPC Annual Scientific Meeting.
Dr Jienchi Doward: Improving HIV Management in Primary Care
Jienchi’s research has focused on identifying ways to improve the management of HIV in primary care in South Africa through clinical trials of point-of-care diagnostics, evaluations of community treatment programmes, and epidemiological analyses of new anti-retroviral regimens.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jienchi also worked on the PRINCIPLE and PANORAMIC trials, the UK National Urgent Public Health trials of community COVID-19 treatments run in our department.
Speaking about his work, Jienchi highlighted the collaborative nature of research: "I really enjoy working with a range of different, highly skilled people through research, and love the feeling when you first get the results of a study and have found out something new about how the world works."
Jienchi plans to use the £500 award to travel to South Africa to establish a collaboration that evaluates how cardiovascular disease (CVD) is managed in primary care among people living with HIV.
"Currently, HIV management in primary care is highly 'siloed' with separate funding streams and monitoring and evaluation of outcomes, which goes against the integrated primary care approach," explains Jienchi. "As people with HIV are at higher risk of CVD than people without HIV, this siloing can lead to avoidable morbidity and mortality through missed opportunities for primary and secondary CVD disease prevention."
Dr Kelly Birtwell: Improving Healthcare Access for Underserved Groups
Kelly focuses her research on mindfulness for underserved groups and the health and wellbeing of autistic adults. As a counsellor, mindfulness teacher, and chartered psychologist, Kelly aims to improve access to healthcare for people who are currently underserved by research and practice. She is currently conducting a realise review exploring how mindfulness interventions can be provided for patients in socially deprived communities.
"The most interesting aspect of my work is meeting with public contributors, autistic project advisors and other stakeholders to shape the research and discuss the findings," says Kelly. "This input is vital to ensure the research is conducted in a way that is accessible to participants and to ensure it focuses on the questions and topics that matter most to people."
Kelly’s research includes several collaborative projects with NDPCHS researchers. She is working with Professor Geoff Wong, Associate Professor of Primary Care, on exploring general practice support for autistic adults, and with Professor Sophie Park on mindfulness for people from areas of socioeconomic deprivation. Her other projects include investigating autistic health inequalities, studying autistic adults' experiences of mindfulness (funded by Mind and Life Institute), and developing ways to increase physical activity for autistic adults through dance (funded by the NIHR School for Primary Care Research).
The award will support an in-person professional development visit with her collaborator Professor Stewart Mercer at the University of Edinburgh and help her build connections with Deep End GP practices – surgeries that have the highest levels of blanket socioeconomic deprivation - to share research findings and support translation into clinical practice.