Professor Ramesh Arasaradnam has been elected as the Royal College of Physicians' (RCP's) new Academic Vice President following a vote by over 2,800 of the RCP’s fellows. Other key roles have also been filled in a round of elections and appointments. All have a 3 year tenure and are effective from 1 August.
Professor Arasaradnam is a consultant gastroenterologist at University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire. He received the OBE for services to the NHS during the pandemic as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours, having designed a clinical trial for a new COVID-19 treatment, known as the IONIC trial, and led strategic priorities during COVID-19 across the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG), where he is Chair of the Research Committee. He is Specialty Lead for Gastroenterology for the West Midlands Local Research Network and a member of the Research Advisory Board for the National Bowel Cancer Screening Programme.
As well as his clinical work and research interests, Professor Arasaradnam provides teaching, learning and educational leadership at the University of Warwick, University of Coventry and the University of Leicester. He is also Clinical Personal Tutor for undergraduate medical students and examiner for final professional exams, as well as Invited (MD/PhD) External Examiner in the UK and Europe. He produced educational content for the RCP around the relationship between COVID-19 and the gut.
Professor Arasaradnam said: “’I’m very honoured to be elected to this role and feel very privileged to be working alongside such erudite colleagues. COVID-19 has highlighted how important it is to incorporate research within our daily clinical practice and I am keen that we try and maintain this."
Other elected roles
Three new councillors were also elected:
Dr Catherine Mummery is a consultant neurologist, and honorary Associate Professor, at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College London Hospital, London. She is already involved with the RCP as the Association of British Neurologists (ABN) representative on the RCP’s Medical Specialties Board, is Chair of the Joint Clinical Neuroscience Committee and involved in Invited Service Reviews. She is Chair of ABN Services Committee and Deputy Chair of Neurosciences Clinical Reference Group. She is the Head of Clinical Trials at the Dementia Research Centre, UCL and her research focus is on finding a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.
Dr Ananthakrishnan Raghuram MBE is a consultant physician in general/respiratory medicine and Associate Medical Director, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He is Head of the postgraduate school of medicine, Health Education England, Severn and has held other roles at the RCP, as censor, Linacre Fellow and regional advisor, and within the JRCPTB and MRCP. He is a member of the Part 2 MRCP examination board and chair and host of MRCP PACES.
Dr Louella Vaughan is a consultant physician in acute medicine at Barts Health NHS Trust. As senior clinical research fellow at the Nuffield Trust, her research focusses on the organisation of acute and emergency care, smaller and rural hospitals, and patient safety. She is also a medical historian and the current Harveian Librarian of the RCP.
Appointed roles
Dr Tun Aung and Dr Harriet Gordon have been appointed as RCP censors following an open process:
Dr Gordon is a consultant gastroenterologist in Winchester, where she is Associate Medical Director for Workforce and was previously British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) Workforce Lead, and then Director of the Medical Workforce Unit for the Royal College of Physicians. She is currently Chair of the RCP Flexibility and Wellbeing group and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges Flexible Careers Committee, and also an elected councillor and Trustee for the BSG.
Dr Aung is a consultant physician (General Medicine and Geriatric Medicine) at Hull Royal Infirmary . He holds several other roles with the RCP, including Regional Advisor for Yorkshire, MRCP PACES Exam Regional Lead (Yorkshire) and member of the RCP London Medical Training Initiative Committee and was elected to the RCP’s Council in 2020.
The Academic Vice President is one of six senior college officers representing the interests of the RCP’s fellows and members. They provide strategic leadership on almost all aspects of the RCP's operations and lead the way on policy development. As part of the RCP, they play an important role in representing physicians’ interests in public policy, and development of the profession and standards of healthcare. The six senior officers are also trustees.
The RCP’s Council meets six times a year and develops RCP policy in relation to professional and clinical matters. It gives authority to RCP statements and publications and elections to the fellowship and membership as well as of RCP officers. Council also considers and acts on current issues affecting professional practice and standards. Its membership totals 42 and includes the senior officers, directly elected councillors and other representatives of those involved in the RCP's work.
Censors oversee the RCP’s vital work in education, examination and maintaining standards in medical practice, part of the core work of the RCP.