Dear All,
I too have recently joined this news group (after reading the
Wellcome News magazine), so, I shall introduce myself.
I am a consultant anaesthetist in Nottingham, specialising
in thoracic anaesthesia and in Intensive Care.
I trained at Guy's Hospital Medical School (London), and I have
a BSc in Medical Physics, and a PhD in Physiology.
I have a particular interest in the rapidly growing area of
interfacing computers to medical equipment (in the anaesthesia
& intensive Care domain), and the processing and serving of
such data in useful forms to the anaesthetist during operations.
Readers of this news group may be surprised to hear that
Anaesthesia is the largest single hospital NHS speciality;
for example, there are over 100 anaesthetists covering the
two university hospitals here in Nottingham.
I also run a small medical garden at the City Hospital, which
I use to try and increase awareness among the public and hospital
staff regarding the part played by plants in the history of
pharmacology; the connection being that Anaesthetists use more
drugs having an interesting plant history than other doctors.
However, sponsorship in this area is virtually impossible, so
if anyone can help connect me with some funding I would be
grateful. I have given talks at Kew and other institutions (on
how modern doctors use such drugs etc), but this only just keeps
the garden ticking over.
I am particularly interested in promoting the public awareness of
science & technology, especially in anaesthesia and intensive
care, as it is my experience that the public's concept of this
area is virtually zero.
In my view much could be done to promote this topic by raising funds
to support a big exhibition at one of the annual British Association
meetings; What mean here is to have a mock-up of a theatre,
showing all the complex technology, pharmacology, physiology, etc which
underpins modern anaesthesia and Intensive Care.
However, since the BA is not a trade fair, funds are difficult to
come by, and most companies are not very interested.
Anyone else interested in this project?
There are excellent possibilities for TV (any TV producers interested
in exploring the HUGE area of anaesthesia & Intensive Care?).
In my view one could easily make an 8 or so 1-hr programs
covering everything from the history, technology, drugs, plants
(eg curare, and many others etc), pharmacology, physiology, problems,
pain relief, training, use of computers in anaesthesia, etc etc.
To some extent there is a certain urgency (for TV producers)
since many of the key players in the history of anaesthesia and
Intensive Care are now in danger of dying before their stories can
be told.
Hopefully, this will prompt some discussion :-)
I would be happy to expand on any of these topics.
Dick Nickalls
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Dr RWD Nickalls BSc, PhD, MBBS, FRCA.
Consultant in Anaesthesia & Intensive Care,
Department of Anaesthesia, TEL: 0115-9691169 Ext45637
Nottingham City Hospital NHS Trust, +44-115-9691169 Ext45637
Hucknall Road,
Nottingham, NG5-1PB, FAX: 0115-9627713
UK. +44-115-9627713
email: [log in to unmask]
Pager: 0115-9691169
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