The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust have joined the Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC). This brings together 21,500 clinicians and other NHS staff, researchers and academics to drive innovation and improved care for the direct benefit of over 1.1 million patients each year in North West London.
With existing members Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare Trust, the extended collaboration is set to achieve major advances in health and healthcare by aligning the research, education and clinical services of four organisations with international reputations in all these areas. The new partners bring particular strengths in research and care for cancer and heart and lung diseases.
The Imperial College AHSC was the UK's first AHSC, formed in 2007 as a partnership between Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare Trust, with Department of Health designation. For the first time, the Imperial College AHSC will now bring together these four organisations that are world leaders in medical research, clinical care and education.
The AHSC will build on existing collaborative projects between the partners, including the West London Genomic Medicine Centre, which is playing a key role in the successful delivery of the 100,000 Genomes Project; the RM Partners Cancer Vanguard, which is developing new models of cancer care; and joint lung cancer research projects.
Professor Jonathan Weber, Imperial College AHSC Director, said: "Our aspiration is to harness the clinical and academic capabilities of the partner organisations to develop new and better approaches to the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients. Expansion of the Imperial College AHSC provides exceptional opportunities to create a step-change in our research and education activities increasing the impact we can have on patient care, not only in our own organisations but across the NHS and beyond."
Professor Alice Gast, President, Imperial College London, said: "We warmly welcome our new partners in Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre. Each institution in the Imperial College AHSC is world-leading in its own right, and we can achieve even more by working together and combining our expertise and our strengths. This expansion represents an important and exciting milestone in our mission to enhance and transform healthcare in the UK and across the world."
Dr Tracey Batten, Chief Executive, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, said: "More than ever, the NHS needs to encourage and support staff to find better ways of caring for patients and helping them to stay as healthy as possible. The connections and opportunities offered by the AHSC have already brought huge benefits. We are delighted to welcome our two new partners to expand these connections and opportunities even further."
Bob Bell, Chief Executive, Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, said: "This strategic alliance will promote an integrated research vision with the capacity to strengthen translational research into heart and lung disease. Patients will be the ultimate beneficiaries, with our combined expertise offering an unparalleled national collaboration. This will improve outcomes now and support enhanced research for future generations."
Cally Palmer, Chief Executive, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We are delighted to partner with Imperial AHSC to accelerate our work together in research, treatment and care, and education so that we can provide our patients with the very best cancer care based on the latest research."
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For more information, please contact:
Franca Davenport
AHSC Communications Officer
Imperial College AHSC
Email: f.davenport@imperial.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 6708
Out of hours duty media officer: +44 (0)7803 886 248
Notes to editors:
About Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre
Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) is a partnership between Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, based in West London.
Established in 2007, it was the first AHSC to be created in the UK and was formally designated by the Department of Health in 2009.
The partnership brings together multi-disciplinary research and education from across all faculties at the College with the resources and critical mass of the Trust to advance discovery and innovation within healthcare.
The purpose of Imperial College AHSC is to utilise excellence in research and education to transform health outcomes, and support the UK's globally competitive position in healthcare related industries by increasing societal and economic gain.
The AHSC is nested within Imperial College Health Partners, the Academic Health Science Network for North West London, which will ensure that discoveries and innovations are applied on a national and global scale.
About Imperial College London
Imperial College London is one of the world's leading universities. The College's 16,000 students and 8,000 staff are expanding the frontiers of knowledge in science, medicine, engineering and business, and translating their discoveries into benefits for society.
Founded in 1907, Imperial builds on a distinguished past - having pioneered penicillin, holography and fibre optics - to shape the future. Imperial researchers work across disciplines to improve health and wellbeing, understand the natural world, engineer novel solutions and lead the data revolution. This blend of academic excellence and its real-world application feeds into Imperial's exceptional learning environment, where students participate in research to push the limits of their degrees.
Imperial collaborates widely to achieve greater impact. It works with the NHS to improve healthcare in west London, is a leading partner in research and education within the European Union, and is the UK's number one research collaborator with China.
Imperial has nine London campuses, including its White City Campus: a research and innovation centre that is in its initial stages of development in west London. At White City, researchers, businesses and higher education partners will co-locate to create value from ideas on a global scale. http://www.imperial.ac.uk
About Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust provides acute and specialist health care for around a million people annually. We have five hospitals as well as community services across North West London. With Imperial College London, we are a designated academic health science centre, improving care through rapid translation of research and excellence.
About the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust
Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust is the UK's largest specialist centre for the treatment of heart and lung disease. Working from two sites, Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea, West London, and Harefield Hospital, near Uxbridge, the Trust has an international reputation for the expertise of its staff, high standard of care and research success. Experts at the Trust help patients from all age groups who have heart and lung problems and provide some of the most complex surgery and sophisticated treatments available anywhere in the world. The Trust is the UK's largest centre for the treatment of adult congenital heart disease and is the country's leading provider of specialist respiratory care. Over the years the Trust has been responsible for major medical breakthroughs, such as the UK's first combined heart and lung transplant. It established the UK's first adult service for cystic fibrosis, which is now one of Europe's biggest treatment centres for the condition. http://www.rbht.nhs.uk
About The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
The Royal Marsden opened its doors in 1851 as the world's first hospital dedicated to cancer diagnosis, treatment, research and education.
Today, together with its academic partner, The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), it is the largest and most comprehensive cancer centre in Europe treating over 50,000 NHS and private patients every year. It is a centre of excellence with an international reputation for groundbreaking research and pioneering the very latest in cancer treatments and technologies.
The Royal Marsden, with the ICR, is the only National Institute for Health Research Biomedical Research Centre for Cancer. This supports pioneering research work carried out over a number of different cancer themes.
The Royal Marsden also provides community services in the London borough of Sutton.
Since 2003, The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity has funded the latest developments in cancer research, diagnosis, treatment and patient care. Over recent years, supporters of The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity have funded facilities including the Oak Centre for Children and Young People, the da Vinci robots, the CyberKnife radiotherapy machine and the Reuben Foundation Imaging Centre.
HRH The Duke of Cambridge became President of The Royal Marsden in 2007, following a long royal connection with the hospital.