Adult Allergy

Programme aims

The clinical fellowship is aimed at those doctors who wish to learn more about the diagnosis, treatment and management of a wide range of allergy conditions.

The fellowship will update you on the latest clinical practice and provide ‘hands on sessions’ in clinics and in our day case wards. There are further opportunities to see the ongoing work in our dedicated Clinical Trials Unit, where large, interventional studies are ongoing as well as in our laboratories.

As well as adult and paediatric allergy clinics, there are numerous opportunities to observe the work of other specialist departments such as the Dermatologists at the St John’s Institute of Dermatology, who work closely with our department.

There are also many unique joint clinics such as the joint Allergy/Gastroenterology clinics held with the Paediatric Gastroenterology team from Great Ormond Street Hospital as well as those with respiratory and ENT specialists. A key element of the fellowship is to consider how the knowledge and skills acquired on the fellowship can be applied back at work in your own setting.

A Certificate of Attendance will be awarded to visitors upon the end of their programme.

Format

The clinical fellowship is delivered in the work place and participants will receive one to one supervision and direction while based in the clinic or day-case environment. A unique focus of this programme is the opportunity for participants to be totally integrated with the delivery of allergy services at the hospital.

Participants will also be included in the ongoing educational activities of the allergy department such as multidisciplinary team meetings and grand rounds as well as the programmes of the Allergy Academy.

The Allergy Academy hosts around 15 educational events each year ranging from intensive three day courses to study days with international key opinion leaders.

Who can apply

This programme is intended primarily for non U.K. doctors, with an interest in allergy. This includes Allergologists, Pulmonologists, ENT surgeons, Dermatologists, Gastroenterologists or General Practitioners. Delegates are expected to have worked in a hospital setting.

Programme duration

We are able to offer clinical fellowships for overseas doctors for three, six or 12 months. Shorter or longer attachments are available if required. As we have a number of visiting doctors at any one time, it is important that we have a clear understanding of exactly which areas of allergy you are most interested in.

These include:

• Clinical Allergology
• Clinical Research
• Laboratory Research

Clinical fellowships are tailored to your specific requirements and if you have a specific interest in a particular area e.g. food allergy, drug allergy, allergen immunotherapy then simply let us know.

The clinical fellowships are run by the Department of Allergy at Guy’s Hospital. The Academic Department of Allergy is fully integrated into the clinical service and is part of King’s College London. Clinical Leads for Allergy are Professor Gideon Lack and Dr Adam Fox.

Adult Allergy service

The Adult Allergy service is based at Guy’s Hospital and is one of only five full time allergy centres in the UK. It is the country’s largest and busiest allergy centre, taking referrals nationally. In 2013/14 the department saw 4,114 new patients, 4,933 follow up as well as 580 day cases.

Our Adult immunotherapy service has around 260 patients currently receiving active subcutaneous or sublingual treatment. We also provide a specialist service for patients with difficult asthma as well as a transitional clinic for adolescents. There are also specialist clinics in drug allergy as food allergy together with joint clinics with the Dermatology team from the St John’s Institute of Dermatology, for patients with severe eczema.

The department has a long established reputation for pushing forward the frontiers in both clinical care and academic research. The department has been identified by the Department of Health as a Centre of Excellence and is approved as a provider of highly specialised Allergy services by NHS (National Health Service) England.

Consultant staff include Professor Chris Corrigan, Dr Rubaiyat Haque, Dr Stephen Till and Dr Rosa Caballero. The service is one of very few accredited UK training centres for Adult Allergy and currently has 4 trainees.

The department’s expertise in areas such as immunotherapy, food allergy and drug allergy provides training opportunities not available to trainees, adult or paediatric, elsewhere.

The Adult Academic programme is led by Professor Chris Corrigan and is part of an academic collaboration with Imperial College within the MRC & Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma, created in 2005. Current research strands include the Inflammation and Airways Structure Programme.

The strategy of this is to translate basic science and technology into new understanding of the influence of the environment on asthma pathogenesis and control, and then translate this back into new avenues for patient care in the short to medium term.

The programme harnesses the considerable weight of basic asthma research infrastructure around the MRC and Asthma UK Centre for Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma, which is strongly founded in basic and developmental immunology (Professor Hawrylowicz), smooth muscle physiology (Professor Ward) and genomics (Dr Lavender), the Randall Institute which focuses (amongst other things) on IgE structure and function (Professors Gould and Sutton), and the unique capacity for environmental analysis afforded by the KCL environmental research unit (Professor Frank Kelly) and opportunities for epidemiological research on the effects of environmental influences such as Vitamin D status on asthma control though collaboration with Professor Chris Griffiths at QMW College.

Example TimeTable

Fees

A course fee per week will be applied; this fee excludes accommodation and travelling expenses. To find out the fee amount please email vpp@gstt.nhs.uk

Please note

Clinicians are able to offer bursaries or discounted placements on an individual basis. This is at the discretion of the Directorates of GSTT and does not affect the terms and conditions of the Visiting Professional Programme agreements.