YHFS Specialised Foundation Programmes

West Yorkshire (WY)

Within West Yorkshire there are 21 Specialised Academic Foundation Training Programmes. These incorporate a standard F1 training programme and an F2 training programme which includes a 4-month academic research or medical education attachment at the University of Leeds

18 Specialised Foundation Programme Research Programmes.
3 Specialised Foundation Programme Medical Education Programmes
Collaboration with University of Leeds School of Medicine https://medicinehealth.leeds.ac.uk/medicine-research-innovation
Projects can be developed in a number of specialties and research areas; potential projects and their SFP supervisors are listed below. For more information https://medicinehealth.leeds.ac.uk/medicine-clinical-academic-training

The full academic rotations for West Yorkshire are available at the bottom of this page.

How to Apply

Information will be published on the UKFPO website. For details of how to apply, please see our Allocation Process section. If you have any queries, please contact england.foundation.yh@nhs.net

Projects and Supervisors

Specialised Foundation Academic Projects and Supervisors – West Yorkshire (for 4-month F2 projects in Aug 24-Jul 25)

West Yorkshire Academic Foundation Placements (Specialised Foundation) are available with the following supervisors in the research areas indicated below. If there is not a project offered in a particular specialty that you are interested in pursuing research in please contact Jo Bentley (J.Bentley@leeds.ac.uk) to discuss.

	Supervisor		Clinical Specialty	Project description
1	Dr Oliver Todd Prof Andrew Clegg	Geriatric Medicine	Which patterns in wearable blood pressure recording are predictive of adverse cardiovascular events as well as syncope and falls? A range of reviews.
2	Dr Oliver Todd Prof Andy Clegg	Geriatric Medicine	Optimising structure medication reviews for older people to reduce overprescribing and associated inequalities using big data sets in CPRD
3	Dr Oliver Todd Prof Andy Clegg	Geriatric Medicine	Optimising blood pressure management for care home residents using big data sets in Connected Bradford
4	Dr Darren Treanor	Histopathology (Digital Pathology)	Evaluating new systems for digital pathology
5	Dr Darren Treanor	Histopathology (Digital Pathology)	Are you sure it’s cancer? Cognition, error and image quality in diagnostic pathology
6	Dr Darren Treanor	Histopathology (Digital Pathology)	Artificial intelligence and digital pathology for the diagnosis of cancer
7	Prof Phil Quirke Dr Nick West	Histopathology	Clinical Trials research
8	Prof Phil Quirke Dr Nick West	Histopathology	Tumour immunology
9	Prof Phil Quirke	Histopathology	Cardiovascular pathology
10	Prof Phil Quirke Dr Nic Orsi	Histopathology	Gynaecological oncology/placental pathology
11	Prof Phil Quirke Dr Richard Digby	Histopathology	Dementia
12	Prof Phil Quirke Dr Kate Marks	Histopathology	Bowel Cancer
13	Prof Phil Quirke Dr Caroline Young	Histopathology	Pancreatic Cancer
14	Ms Grainne Bourke	Plastic Surgery	Patient related outcome measures in children's hand surgery. Several options for projects here to link with national and international outcomes assessments in congenital hand surgery
15	Ms Grainne Bourke	Plastic Surgery	Functional Rotational limb range in adolescence with and without nerve injury
16	Ms Grainne Bourke	Plastic Surgery	Patient related outcome measures after hand trauma. Is there a gender difference in evaluation
17	Ms Grainne Bourke	Plastic Surgery	Evaluation of nerve repair after injury – imaging/clinical/neurophysiology
18	Prof Hemant Pandit	Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgery	Sensors in orthopaedic surgery
19	Prof Hemant Pandit	Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgery	Pain relief in osteoarthritis.
20	Prof Dermot Burke	General Surgery	Improving outcomes of emergency general surgery
21	Prof Dermot Burke	General Surgery	Examining a new approach to infection prevention in colorectal surgery
22	Prof Dermot Burke	General Surgery	Improving outcomes for patients with intestinal failure.
23	Mr Yazan Khaled	General Surgery	Systematic review on quality of life after Total Pancreatectomy. Analysis of the literature and local data.
24	Mr Yazan Khaled	General Surgery	Neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio as a predictor for response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with pancreatic cancer.
25	Mr Yazan Khaled	General Surgery	20-year review of Leeds Pathology Protocol margin analysis post Pancreaticoduodenectomy- longest FU series.
27	Mr Yazan Khaled	General Surgery	Outcome of 20-year series of venous + pancreatic resection at Leeds Pancreatic Unit.
28	Prof David Jayne Mr Joshua Burke	General Surgery	Investigating novel therapies for gastrointestinal anastomotic healing
29	Miss Candice Downey	General Surgery	Quality of life after emergency surgery
30	Dr Faisal Mushtaq Mr Ryan Mathew	Neurosurgery	Using Virtual and Augmented Reality to support surgical training and performance
31	Dr Faisal Mushtaq Mr Ryan Mathew	Medical Education	Using virtual reality to support trainees to manage complex mental health consultations in General Practice
32	Mr Chris Derham Mr Ryan Mathew	Neurosurgery	Biomechanical stability of the cervical spine. Pathological processes implicated in degenerative cervical disc disease.
33	Prof Julian Scott Mr Marc Bailey Mr Patrick Coughlin Mr Henry Davies	Vascular Surgery	Multi-morbidity and its effect on decision making processes in patients with complex vascular disease.
34	Mr Patrick Coughlin Mr Fabio Stocco Mr Marc Bailey	Vascular Surgery	Assessing the patient, societal and economic costs of failed lower limb surgical revascularisation in patients with lower limb peripheral arterial disease.
35	Mr Marc Bailey Mr Patrick Coughlin Dr Chloe Kwan	Vascular Surgery	Opportunities for and impact of optimal secondary cardiovascular risk management in patients undergoing intervention for abdominal aortic aneurysms.
36	Mr Jonathan De Siqueira Prof Julian Scott Mr Henry Davies	Vascular Surgery	Frailty and co-morbidity in patients considered for surgically created vascular access.: is the apparent survival advantage in surgically created vascular access related to patient factors
37	Prof Julian Scott Mr Ryan Laloo Mr Marc Bailey	Vascular Surgery	One year outcomes following acute limb ischaemia; does COVID-19 impact results
38	Prof Simon Howell Dr Richard Wakefield Prof Ai Lyn Tan	Anaesthesia/Intensive Care	Assessment of frailty and sarcopenia in surgical patients using ultrasound imaging of muscle
39	Prof Simon Howell	Anaesthesia	Pain management in patients undergoing major body cavity surgery: do opiate sparing strategies improve quality of recovery?
40	Prof Simon Howell	Anaesthesia	Targeting exercise prehabilitation strategies in older surgical patients. Is effective training feasible in a limited time window?
41	Prof Simon Howell	Anaesthesia	Health informatics Assessing co-morbidity in surgical patients using routine hospital data
42	Prof Ramzi Ajjan	Endocrinology	Improving vascular outcomes in overweight people with type 1 diabetes: Role of adjunctive therapies in double diabetes
43	Prof Ramzi Ajjan Dr Sarah Mackie Dr Afroze Abbas	Endocrinology	Steroid therapy and cardiometabolic risk: are we doing enough?
44	Prof Ann Morgan Dr Euan Baxter Prof Khalid Naseem	Rheumatology/Cardiology	Assessing FcGamma receptor FcRlla signalling events in platelets: a therapeutic target in autoimmunity and cardiovascular disease.
45	Prof Ann Morgan Dr Euan Baxter Dr Jim Robinson	Rheumatology	Optimising therapeutic monoclonal antibody design for autoimmunity and cancer
46	Prof Ann Morgan Dr Euan Baxter Dr Jim Robinson	Rheumatology	Unravelling how autoantibodies potentiate autoimmunity and modulate treatment response through studying fcg Receptor biology.
47	Prof Ann Morgan Dr Sarah Mackie Dr Aruna Chakrabarty	Rheumatology	Can blindness and ischaemic symptoms in giant cell arteritis be predicted by histological features?
48	Prof Ann Morgan Dr Sarah Mackie Dr Aruna Chakrabarty	Rheumatology	Does macrophage and T-cell polarization in giant cell arteritis tissue biopsies predict response to treatment?
49	Prof Ann Morgan Dr Sarah Mackie	Rheumatology	Can response to steroids be predicted at disease onset in in giant cell arteritis? Can we identify patients who require additional immunosuppressant therapy/biologics at presentation?
50	Prof Ann Morgan Dr Mark Iles	Rheumatology	Identifying genetic predictors of GCA, PMR or COVID-19 through polygenic risk score analysis
51	Dr Sarah Mackie	Rheumatology	Methods for developing new taxonomies of disease: updating the definition(s) of polymyalgia rheumatica using the ADDRESS-PMR dataset
52	Dr Sarah Mackie	Rheumatology	Addressing persistent health inequalities in polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis: a system-level approach
53	Dr Sarah Mackie Dr Oliver Todd	Rheumatology	Daily fluctuations in blood pressure in outpatients treated with corticosteroids: feasibility of detection and clinical significance.
54	Prof Ann Morgan Prof Andrew Scarsbrook Dr Harry Tsoumpas	Rheumatology	Enhancing imaging analysis and reporting in large vessel vasculitis through novel analytical techniques
55	Prof Philip Conaghan Dr Sarah Kingsbury	Rheumatology	What is the relationship between metabolic syndrome and joint pain?
56	Prof Philip Conaghan Dr Sarah Kingsbury	Rheumatology	What interventions work for MSK hand, wrist and elbow problems?
57	Prof Anne-Maree Keenan Prof Anthony Redmond	Rheumatology/Diabetes	Foot Stress Fractures in Peri-menopausal Women: incidence and impact
58	Dr Peter Swoboda	Cardiology (Cardiac MRI)	Mechanisms and significance of cardiac fibrosis detected by MRI in endurance athletes
59	Dr Eylem Levelt	Cardiology (Cardiac MRI)	Clinical outcomes associated with obesity in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopath
60	Dr Eylem Levelt	Cardiology	Impact of ketone infusion on myocardial function and energetics in healthy volunteers and patients with diabetes
61	Dr Andrew Walker Dr Richard Cubbon Prof Mark Kearney	Cardiology Andrew to let me know	Understanding factors that promote healthy cardiovascular ageing
62	Dr Richard Cubbon Dr Michael Drozd	Cardiology	Understanding the predisposition to infection in people with cardiovascular disease
63	Dr Eylem Levelt Prof Eleanor Scott Prof Sven Plein	Cardiology	Exploring the impact of gestational diabetes on the myocardial energetic, structural, and functional adaptations to third trimester of pregnancy
64	Prof Francesco Del Galdo	Rheumatology	Management of Raynaud’s within stratified risk for Connective Tissue disease: a new challenge
65	Prof Francesco Del Galdo	Rheumatology	Multidisciplinary care of Connective Tissue Diseases: Rheumatologist led comprehensive patient care
66	Prof Francesco Del Galdo	Rheumatology	Vascular complications of Connective Tissue diseases: at the frontiers of Rheumatology
67	Prof Francesco Del Galdo	Rheumatology	Antifibrotics for the management of CTD-ILD, the new class of kids in the block.
68	Dr Rebecca Spencer	Obstetrics and Gynaecology/Maternal/Fetal Medicine	Placental extracellular vesicle cargo as a prognostic marker in severe early-onset fetal growth restriction
69	Dr Rebecca Spencer	Obstetrics and Gynaecology/ Maternal/Fetal Medicine	Placental extracellular vesicles as a non-invasive placental biopsy: comparing the protein and RNA cargo with the placental transcriptome and proteome in the first and third trimesters
70	Dr Rebecca Spencer	Obstetrics and Gynaecology/ Maternal/Fetal Medicine	Longitudinal assessment of maternal anxiety in ‘normal’ and complicated pregnancies
71	Dr Rebecca Spencer	Obstetrics and Gynaecology/ Maternal/Fetal Medicine	Development of new maternal and fetal adverse event terms and standard grading criteria using a modified Delphi approach
72	Dr Rebecca Spencer	Obstetrics and Gynaecology/ Maternal and Fetal Medicine	Retrospective validation of standard maternal and fetal adverse event severity grading criteria using anonymised adverse events from clinical trials in pregnancy
73	Dr Katherine Paradine and Prof Mark Kearney	Cardiology (subspecialty Heart Failure)	How do disease-related changes in microvascular endothelial cells affect the function of adipose tissue?
74	Dr Alexander Francisco-Bruns and Prof Mark Kearney	Cardiology (subspecialty Heart Failure).	How do disease-related changes in microvascular endothelial cells affect the function of skeletal muscle?
75	Dr Natalie Haywood and Prof Mark Kearney	Cardiology (subspecialty Heart Failure).	Using organoids to explore the impact of disease-related changes in microvascular endothelial cells on human adipose tissue function.
76	Dr Stuart Currie	Clinical Radiology	Quantitative assessment of glioma using MRI fingerprinting"
77	Prof Adam Glaser	Paediatrics	Prevalence of cardiometabolic syndrome in adult survivors of cancer diagnosed before the age of 30
78	Prof Adam Glaser	Paediatrics	Defining the unmet needs of young people living with and beyond a diagnosis of Sickle Cell disease or Thalassaemia
79	Prof Adam Glaser	Paediatrics	Outcomes of Paediatric Intensive Care e.g. impact of socioeconomic factors
80	Prof Adam Glaser	Paediatrics	Addressing the unmet reproductive health needs to childhood cancer survivors
There are additional projects available:-
81	Mr Chris Mannion	Medical Education	Please contact christopher.mannion@nhs.net
82	Prof Andy Scarsbrook	Clinical Radiology	Please contact A.F.Scarsbrook@leeds.ac.uk
83	Dr Harriet Wallace	GU Medicine	Please contact harriet.wallace@nhs.net

Medical Education

Projects and Supervisors

West Yorkshire Rotation: Specialised Foundation Programme in Medical Education

The Leeds Institute of Medical Education (LIME) is a vibrant environment for learning and teaching with an international profile of excellence. The Institute holds 6 ASPIRE to excellence awards from the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) and benefits from a wealth of experience and a strong track record of scholarship in medical pedagogy. Successful candidates will work within the Medical School during a dedicated 4-month FY2 rotation to support teaching across the MBChB course. Specialised Foundation Programme (SFP) Med Ed trainees should have a passion for education and be keen to expand their knowledge and skills in teaching through bespoke training, feedback, and mentoring from experts at the University.

What will I do?

SFP Trainees will teach core elements of the MBChB course during a dedicated 4-month Medical Education FY2 rotation. Sessions will include anatomy demonstrating, practical skills instructing, small group facilitation, communication skills training, lecturing, and bedside teaching. There will also be opportunities to contribute to curriculum development and assessment. Research projects in clinical education will be encouraged and supported with expenses available to present at pedagogic conferences such as AMEE and ASMEE. Examples of key active research themes within the Institute include the digital delivery of teaching, curriculum development, the involvement of students in their education, patients as educational partners, innovation in assessment, and the use of cutting-edge technologies such as Proximie^TMand Hololens^TM in the delivery of teaching. Trainees will have study leave to attend relevant training and CPD opportunities during the F2 year of Foundation Programme post.

Who should apply?

We expect a highly competitive application process for the scheme recruiting high calibre trainees with a passion for education. We hope to attract trainees interested in a career in medical education keen to further their existing knowledge, skills and experience. Successful completion of an SFP in Medical Education will prepare trainees for competitive application to Academic Clinical Fellowships in Medical Education and provide a stepping-stone towards the study of higher degrees in the speciality (Masters, PhD etc).

Is this an official University position?

The SFP Med Ed programme is a valuable opportunity for formal training in and experience of student education within the University of Leeds. A University Visiting Worker ‘honorary’ contract entitles trainees to the use of UoL resources including the Library, CPD courses and online journal access.

What training will I receive?

SFP Med Ed Trainees will receive bespoke training and mentorship from experienced educators within the School of Medicine. Sessions will be focussed on ensuring trainees develop their teaching skills through hands-on practice with peer and expert feedback to improve performance. Successful applicants will receive feedback on their teaching practice over the period of the scheme. Training will include practical skills teaching, small group facilitation, lecturing, online delivery of teaching (hybrid), feedback, and assessment.

Will I get a formal qualification from the scheme?

SFP Med Ed trainees will complete a Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Education (PGCert) over the course of their FY2 rotation. Study leave will be available to complete the modules required. Trainees will also be encouraged to apply for Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy during their post, with support from the PRISE scheme at the University of Leeds. Trainees will receive certificates to confirm CPD received and formal feedback on their teaching performance which can be used as evidence for their ePortfolio.