On receiving the good news, Marvin commented:
I am deeply honoured and grateful to have been awarded the EBHC prize for outstanding dissertation in the MSc in Evidence-Based Health Care. The programme's structured modules on best practices in evidence-based medicine provided me with essential skills that I was able to apply directly to my dissertation. I would like to thank the programme and module coordinators, and my supervisor Professor Kamal Mahtani, for their guidance and for enabling me to contribute to high-quality healthcare research.
Amanda said:
I am both surprised and honoured to receive this award! I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to work with world-class researchers whose work is published in leading journals such as The Lancet and The BMJ. I am particularly indebted to my supervisor and the Nuffield Department of Primary Care for their guidance, support, and the stimulating academic environment provided throughout my studies.
Vijay shared his comments:
Winning this prize feels like an incredible validation of the past two years. When I started this Master’s, I didn’t even know how to begin reading an academic paper, let alone doing research myself. Somewhere along the way, I realised I genuinely love research. This degree has opened doors I never imagined and ultimately led me to begin a PhD. I’m deeply grateful for the opportunities it has given me, and especially to Cynthia Wright-Drakesmith and Richard Stevens for their mentorship and support.
Chloe said:
I feel deeply honoured to be awarded the EBHC best dissertation prize and hope the skills acquired during this degree will serve as a strong foundation for my future academic endeavours. I would like to thank my supervisor Dr David McCartney for his invaluable insight and support, and my family for their unwavering encouragement throughout. I am grateful for the opportunities this degree has given me and hope to continue building on what I have learnt in the future.
and Cassandra added:
I was humbled and honoured to have been recognised with a prize for an outstanding dissertation. A special thank you to the guidance and support from my supervisor, Dr. Emily McFadden and the True Colours – Inflammatory Bowel Disease group, in particular Dr. Alissa Walsh and Dr. Lawrence Matini. And, of course, to my family and friends for all of the encouragement along the way.
Synopses of the prize-winners’ theses are as follows:
Marvin
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a common peripheral nerve condition, and carpal tunnel release surgery is often done to relief the compression. Traditionally, this operation uses a tourniquet to stop bleeding during the surgery and may involve sedation. A newer method called “WALANT” (WideAwake Local Anaesthesia No Tourniquet) utilizes local anaesthetic drug mixed with adrenaline, which safely reduces bleeding, so a tourniquet and sedation are not needed.
We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 14 studies that directly compared WALANT with traditional methods for open carpal tunnel release. We found that pain after surgery and improvements in hand function were the same with WALANT as with traditional techniques. During the operation, patients having WALANT felt less pain than those having local anaesthesia with tourniquet. Overall patient satisfaction and the length of operation were similar. Complications were uncommon and similar in both groups. Importantly, no anaesthesia related problems were reported with WALANT.
Amanda
As a clinician, my research interests are on primary prevention and early intervention, aiming to reduce disease burden before clinical onset. I am particularly interested in modifiable risk factors, including smoking in lung cancer and the role of adverse life experiences in the development of schizophrenia. In my dissertation, I conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis examining the role of vitamin D supplementation in the management of seasonal affective disorder.
Mental health conditions are debilitating illnesses that impose a considerable burden on the health care system, economic productivity and lead to individual suffering and even suicides. Vitamin D supplementation is safe, affordable, and widely available, and has been proposed as a potential intervention for depressive symptoms.
Overall, this work contributes to a broader understanding of treatment approaches in seasonal affective disorder, highlighting areas of potential benefit while identifying directions for future research and reinforcing the value of established therapeutic strategies.
Vijay
Assessing Screening, Management and Treatment Efficacy in Patients with Heart Failure and Iron Deficiency in Primary Care
Heart failure is a common condition where the heart cannot pump blood effectively, leading to breathlessness, fatigue and reduced independence. Iron deficiency is also very common in people with heart failure. Correcting iron deficiency can improve quality of life and help patients with heart failure live longer.
We used GP records across the UK to examine how newly diagnosed heart failure patients are managed. We studied how often iron levels were checked, how many patients were deficient, and how many received treatment. We also looked at whether those given oral iron showed improvements in their results.
We found that only one in three patients had their iron levels checked in the year after diagnosis. Younger people, men, and those without other medical conditions were least likely to be tested or treated. These findings highlight the need to improve awareness and ensure vulnerable groups are not overlooked.
Chloe
My thesis focused on how the consequences of cosmetic surgical tourism can impact NHS resources. The choice to undertake an aesthetic surgical operation abroad can be enticing, with costs or country-specific surgical technologies sometimes influencing choice over options in a patient’s home country. Unfortunately, post-operative outcomes and patient care abroad are not always optimal and sometimes the onus falls on NHS services to resolve complications when a patient returns home, however funding and resources are limited, and NHS services often struggle to meet public needs.
My systematic review sought to identify the types of, and extent to which, NHS resources have been used in treating these post-operative complications. Assessing the consequences of how privately funded patient actions impact a public service can have utility in informing how current NHS services are run and be adapted to maximise the quality of patient care.
Cassandra
Inflammatory bowel disease is a chronic inflammatory condition that encompasses patients that have been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
Monitoring programs that use patient reported outcome measures (PROM’s) empower patients and could help physicians better understand what symptoms patients experience after starting a medication. I was very thankful to work with the True Colours – Inflammatory Bowel Disease (TC–IBD) group to explore this important clinical question.
TC–IBD is a remote monitoring programme used at the John Radcliffe Hospital, in Oxford, United Kingdom. Through this programme, patient perceptions of disease control were recorded following treatment initiation. My study was a cross-sectional study designed to explore the use of PROM’s to monitor for clinical remission following exposure to either vedolizumab or adalimumab (two different medications) in a real-world clinical setting.