Alice Maidwell-Smith

I studied medicine at The University of Birmingham and went on to complete my foundation training across the South East of England. I am currently a GP specialty registrar within Hampshire. My clinical interests include women's and reproductive health, diabetes care, weight management, and promotion of healthier lifestyle choices.

Outside of the consulting room, I have a strong grounding in healthcare research having completed a Masters of Health Research. I have practical experience leading and collaborating as part of a clinical research team and have published research within women's health, global health, and medical education.

I am passionate about how stakeholders’ lived experiences can be used to develop and refine healthcare interventions and improve outcomes. This includes more closely understanding how psycho-sociocultural factors might influence people’s behaviours and how they engage with healthcare services. I am excited to build upon my skills in this area during the fellowship year by meaningfully translating this into a population health project.

Longer term, as a future GP, I am motivated to advocate for the healthcare needs of my local community, provide quality clinical care to my individual patients, and further pursue my interests in clinical academia.

Christopher Akuse

I am a GP ST2 trainee in Portsmouth.

I am originally from Nigeria, where I was born, raised and trained.

I worked there for a few years, mostly in Emergency Medicine before moving to England and doing several trust grade jobs prior to going into training.

I have always been fascinated by both General Practice and Public Health and I see this fellowship as an opportunity to explore them both as well as discover where the intersection between these two disciplines lies.

I have always felt analysing and addressing issues at the population level was the key to achieving better overall healthcare for large groups of people and I am looking forward to learning how to do that over the course this fellowship.

*All bios have been approved to be on the Population Health Academy page

Katie Warburton

Job Role: GP and Health Equity Primary Care Fellow

Organisation: Shepherd's Spring Medical Centre, Andover (GP), NHS England, Thames Valley and Wessex Primary Care School (Fellowship)

What inspired you to apply for the fellowship programme: 
I have seen the impact of Health inequalities both directly in my clinical work, and also through previous roles working at PCN level. I was attracted to doing the fellowship to have some protected time to learn more about Health Inequalities and think about how things can be improved at a population level. Self-directed study and work is something I enjoy and I feel privileged to have been given space to explore this area further.

What area have you looked at / or are you looking at: 
I have spent time learning broadly about Health Inequalities through online learning and courses/conferences. I have explored the national approach to reducing Health Inequalities, and spoken to people working more locally. I am especially interested in psychological trauma and it's link to experiencing Health Inequality. This led me to learning more about trauma-informed care, and through this I discovered the movement for Kindness in Healthcare, which has become the focus for my fellowship.

A brief description of the project/ programme: 
I have been working with Jo Hunter, another Health Equity Fellow. We have explored the concept of Kindness in Healthcare and have developed our thinking and understanding of this area of work. We have connected with people around the country (and internationally) who are working in this area. We have developed and delivered teaching sessions talking about kindness to ourselves, patients, within teams, and at whole system level. We have explored and shared the evidence that kindness improves patient outcomes, and practitioner satisfaction. We have shown how this links to reducing Health Inequalities. We continue to research further and refine our work, as well as sharing our findings with different groups, and starting to think about its application to areas such as education and training.

Nicholas Ballantyne
 
Job Role: GP, Palliative Care Doctor, and Thames Valley Wessex Primary Care Fellow in Health Inequalities 23/24
 
What inspired you to apply for the fellowship programme: 
In both my GP training and personal life, I have been awakened about how the wider determinants of our population health must be addressed to make meaningful differences in health outcomes. This fellowship provides a wonderful opportunity for me to understand how we can make the biggest impact for the communities we serve.
 
What area have you looked at / or are you looking at: 
I am looking into how our GP and Social Prescriber teams can proactively engage with Communities with greater health needs and provide an additional arm of support for them.

Victoria Makin
 
Job Role: GP, Wistaria Surgery, Lymington, Hampshire
 
What inspired you to apply for the fellowship programme: 
During my GP training in the North East of England, and for several years after qualification, I worked in GP practices serving populations with very high levels of deprivation. I had no training in Health Equity, but it would have been valuable.
 
What area have you looked at / or are you looking at: 
My Fellowship project gave me the opportunity to help establish an Health Equity Focused Training (HEFT) option for doctors undertaking GP vocational training in the Thames Valley area, from Summer 2024. The aims of HEFT are to allow GPs to develop the skills, knowledge, experience and resilience to work in areas of poverty and with excluded groups.