Two researchers from the Department of Primary Care Health Sciences have been awarded grants from the prestigious Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Scientific Funding Board.
One award was made to Dr Kamal R Mahtani for a project examining the evidence for dietary salt restriction in heart failure patients. Current clinical guidelines advocate salt restriction in these patients, although to date, the evidence underpinning this advice is highly variable.
The second award was made to Dr Susannah Fleming for a project to test the accuracy of pulse oximeters used by GPs. Dr Fleming will be collaborating with a team from the home oxygen clinic where they will be recruiting patients with a range of oxygen saturations and testing the accuracy of the oximeters against a calibrated oximeter and blood levels.
Previous awardees have been Dr Peter Gill (2010) and Professor Carl Heneghan (2004).
Enquiries made to the Royal College of General Practitioners appeared to suggest that only four awards were made nationally in this current round of which two have been made to members of our department.