A New Millennium
2000s
2001
Graduate Medicine course starts with its first cohort of 20 students.
2001
Nick Day – former MRC Research Professor in Epidemiology – appointed OBE for services to statistics and epidemiology underpinning cancer biology.
2002
Ann Louise Kinmonth, the University's inaugural Professor of Primary Care, appointed CBE for services to primary care research.
2003
Diana Wood becomes Dean, the first expert educationalist – and the first woman – appointed to the role.
2003
Kay-Tee Khaw, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Gerontology, appointed CBE for services to medicine.
2003
MRC Epidemiology Unit established.
2003
Martin Roland, former Director of the Cambridge Centre for Health Services Research, appointed CBE for services to medicine.
2004
Addenbrooke’s and The Rosie become Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Growth and Impact
The new millennium brought reform of the undergraduate curriculum by Dr Diana Wood, with the keen support of Dr John Benson. The numbers of students able to stay in Cambridge for their clinical training grew steadily, and the undergraduate clinical course was extended to 3 years, equalling the length of the pre-clinical course.
A course for graduate entry medicine – with a core focus on clinical skills – was developed at Cambridge under the guidance of its Foundation Director Dr Paul Siklos. Since the first cohort began in 2001, the School’s graduate medical students have represented a range of previous educational backgrounds.
There was expansion and deepening collaboration within the School, Addenbrooke’s and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. In 2004, Addenbrooke’s Hospital gained Foundation status, and at the end of the decade, Cambridge University Health Partners was established to bring together the NHS, industry and academia.
The Biomedical Campus grew through new institutes and centres, including the MRC Epidemiology Unit, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and the Institute of Metabolic Science.
The Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute opened in 2007.
The commemorative plaque for the Graduate Course placed at West Suffolk Hospital in 2001. Image: Cardozo Kindersley Workshop
A Preparing for Patients Session. Image: Nick Saffell.
Half a Century of General Practice Education in Cambridge
At the same time as the new School, the role of Director of General Practice Studies was established. Dr Bernard Reiss, who had introduced vocational training for prospective GPs, was appointed in 1976 as the first Director of General Practice Studies in Cambridge. There, he pioneered the use of General Practice to teach medicine to clinical students. Roy Acheson was appointed Foundation Professor of Community Medicine in 1977. Together Acheson and Reiss created the Health Services Research Group in 1980 to address regional concerns of community medicine leaders.
Another key milestone for GP education in Cambridge was the appointment of Ann Louise Kinmonth as Foundation Chair of General Practice in 1997. Kinmonth, whose career has championed academic training in Primary Care and interdisciplinary approaches to reducing health inequalities, was appointed CBE for Services to Primary Care Research in 2002.
Today, the General Practice Education Group (GPEG) at Cambridge is a centre of excellence in the scholarship and delivery of healthcare education. Medical students spend one fifth of their clinical placement time – about 20 weeks – in a network of 180 GP surgeries across the East of England. As Clinical Dean, Dr Diana Wood prioritised the increase in this GP placement time, and as Associate Dean Dr John Benson was integral to the establishment of funding required to teach clinical students in GP surgeries.
The First Patient: Palliative Care at Cambridge
The first patient Cambridge students meet during their pre-clinical course is a cadaver – a supremely generous gift that enables future doctors to learn their craft. Students are taught to consider both the life and the person whom – in death – they learn from. At the end of the students’ first year, the School holds a memorial service at Great St Mary's, the University’s church, for the donors’ families.
The School’s palliative care teaching has been described by the General Medical Council as a ‘national exemplar of excellence’. Professor Stephen Barclay co-leads the teaching of Palliative Care, and works clinically as a GP and Palliative Medicine Honorary Consultant. Appointed as the Specialty Director for Palliative Care in 2002, he has since led a significant expansion of allocated curriculum time for palliative care in Cambridge and contributed to the 2014 revision of the national curriculum for medical student teaching in palliative care.
The 2020 Vision for the Biomedical Campus
At the outset of the new millennium, the Campus published a blueprint for its future. The 2020 Vision document set out the long-term expansion strategy of the Campus, including the opportunities for advancing healthcare, research and industry, and the scope for sustainable growth. Dame Mary Archer was integral to these significant developments of the early Biomedical Campus. She chaired Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for 10 years until 2012 and was the founding director of Cambridge University Health Partners.
Dame Mary served as a non-executive director and vice-chair of Addenbrooke's Hospital NHS Trust from the early 1990s. As Sir Keith Peters recalls: ‘it was during Mary’s time that the seeds of the Biomedical Campus were sown’. Dame Mary continues to contribute, both as president of Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust and as co-chair for the Campaign Board for the proposed Cambridge Children’s Hospital.
Collaboration and knowledge exchange is in the DNA of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus … proximity is accelerating scientific discoveries and the difference this makes to patients.
Nick Kirby, Managing Director, CBC Ltd.
Collaboration and knowledge exchange is in the DNA of the Cambridge Biomedical Campus … proximity is accelerating scientific discoveries and the difference this makes to patients.
Nick Kirby, Managing Director, CBC Ltd.
2005
Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust officially established.
2005
Malcolm Edwards becomes Secretary of the School.
2005
Integrated Foundation of Medical Education course, the training programme for clinical supervisors, established.
2007
Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute opens.
2007
Pamela Ewan, Head of the Allergy Department at CUH, appointed CBE for services to healthcare.
2007
NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre established.
2008
Institute of Metabolic Science established.
2008
Professor Bruce Ponder, Founding Director of Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, knighted for services to medicine.
2009
Cambridge University Health Partners established.
2009
Cambridge Centre for Health Services Research established.
2009
Clinical Academic Training Office founded.