Harvard Medical School visits Manchester

Posted on November 30, 2015

Tracks laid for international collaboration during two day meeting between Harvard Medical School and The University of Manchester.

Delegates from Manchester and Harvard take part in a group discussion

Organised by Manchester integrating medicine and innovative technology (MIMIT) the aim of this high-profile meeting was to explore opportunities for collaboration and identify current unmet health problems that could be solved by combining technical expertise of research scientists with the power of data and technology.

Hosted at The University of Manchester’s Health eResearch Centre (HeRC) the workshop formed part of an innovative ‘Researcher Development Programme’ (MHEET) that aims to create a framework for nurturing meaningful academic collaborations between the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC) and Harvard Medical School.

Two researchers from Harvard worked closely with select researchers from Manchester in an intensive workshop.

“The workshop was a valuable experience and brilliantly facilitated"

Delegate Dr. Matt Sperrin

Through an innovative hands-on model of idea generation and deliberately encouraging free thinking, the workshop enabled attendees to identify and shape new ideas organically.

The first of its kind, the workshop combined collaboration with career development by enhancing independent research skills and providing the opportunity for those is attendance to lead on the development of their own novel ideas.

Following discussions about their interests and how best they might work together, the team set-about the task of identifying, selecting and developing specific ideas and unmet health needs that together, they felt they could address successfully. The project ideas included:

Trajectory of Autisms
Predicting/reducing unscheduled care evaluation
Parental risk factors for neuro-developmental disorders
Backwards predictions of disease incidence

Developing their thinking over dinner in Manchester the event delegates then set-about streamlining their projects by preparing their ideas into short presentations to discuss with the mentors the following day. Each of the four ideas were then evaluated by the mentors, and researchers were given constructive feedback to reflect on their processes and the merits of their projects.

“HeRC were delighted to partner with MIMIT and Harvard to host this groundbreaking workshop.”

Dr Amanda Lamb, HeRC’s Head of Operations

The workshop was brought to its conclusion with some structured activities that enabled the participants to focus their thinking and begin the process of identifying just two of their ideas based on both the mentor feedback and the feasibility to build the idea into a fundable collaboration.

The final two ideas will now be developed jointly across the groups with the intention of two HeRC researchers being awarded the opportunity of traveling to Harvard in Spring 2016.

Manchester and Harvard researchers in discussion

Read the in-depth case study here

Harvard Medical School visits Manchester

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