Dr Shiv Bhakta and Dr Marc Österdahl awarded joint BGS/Dunhill Medical Trust Doctoral Fellowships

Dr Shiv Bhakta and Dr Marc Österdahl have been awarded joint British Geriatrics Society/Dunhill Medical Trust Doctoral Training Fellowships to carry out PhD research benefiting the healthcare of older people. The Fellowships aim to support research projects that have the potential to prevent, delay or reduce future health and social care requirements and to improve older people’s quality of life. Dr Bhakta and Dr Österdahl were funded under the fourth round of the Fellowship scheme, which has been running each year since 2019.

Dr Shiv Bhakta is a Clinical Research Training Fellow and Honorary Specialist Registrar at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge/Addenbrooke’s Hospital. Dr Bhakta’s research, which will be undertaken at the University of Cambridge, will explore how calcium in the carotid arteries affects the risk of a stroke reoccurrence in older people. Calcium in the blood vessels can be seen using a CT (computed tomography) scan and this scan is part of the normal medical treatment for a person coming to hospital with a stroke. The study will also involve contacting individuals by telephone after three months and at yearly intervals following their stroke for up to two years, to find out how they are and about any changes in their health. This will reveal whether individuals with more calcium were more likely to have a second stroke. Understanding whether the level of calcium in a patient’s blood vessels can predict their likelihood of a further stroke will help to improve prevention and care. The judging panel felt that Dr Bhakta’s fellowship application demonstrated high levels of relevance as stroke is a leading cause of adult disability in the UK. It predominantly affects older people and creates a major burden on patients, carers, the healthcare system and society.

Dr Marc Österdahl is a Specialist Registrar in General and Geriatric Medicine at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust and a Clinical Fellow at King’s College London. Globally, women live on average 4-5 years longer than men. However, they have higher rates of frailty that may be partially related to physical changes experienced during menopause. As part of Dr Österdahl’s doctorate, which will be undertaken at King’s College London, he will explore if there is evidence that taking menopausal hormone replacement therapy (mHRT) helps prevent frailty in later life. The study will include detailed information from: female twins in the UK, including data on bone health and muscle strength; the national Danish Twin registry; routinely collected data from GP practices across the country on frailty; and local data from the London Borough of Lambeth. The latter is a particularly rich source of data from groups traditionally under-represented in research. It will look at the effect on global measures of frailty, as well as clinical outcomes such as hospital admission or becoming housebound. Dr Österdahl’s application was deemed by the judging panel to be particularly strong because, while there is evidence that taking mHRT helps women maintain bone strength and potentially muscle mass, there is little evidence indicating its effect on the development of frailty.

Dr Shiv Bhakta, recipient of the Doctoral Fellowship, commented:

I’m very grateful to the Dunhill Medical Trust and British Geriatrics Society for their support with my project. We aim to find out why some strokes happen, and if the current treatments and preventative measures can be tailored more individually this would allow older people to be healthier, and more active and independent.”

Dr Marc Österdahl, recipient of the Doctoral Fellowship, commented:

Recently, there has been a huge increase in interest in HRT, but we still don’t understand the long-term effects on ageing and frailty. We hope this work will help understand why older women become more frail than men, and whether HRT could play a role, allowing women and clinicians to make better-informed choices around their health.”

Dr Emily Henderson, BGS Vice President for Academic Affairs and a Panellist on the Selection Committee, commented:

The joint BGS/Dunhill Medical Trust Doctoral Fellowships are a crucial investment in sustaining high-quality, meaningful research that improves life for older people. Dr Bhakta and Dr Österdahl are two high-calibre, early career researchers whose proposals were ambitious and compelling. Their projects are expected to yield valuable insights in the field of ageing. The award of these fellowships is a wonderful opportunity to support individuals who are committed and passionate about improving the care of older people through high-quality research. The Research and Academic Development Committee congratulates them and wishes them every success in these exciting endeavours.”

Susan Kay, Chief Executive of the Dunhill Medical Trust, commented:

Creating and sustaining capacity in clinical research, particularly in the speciality of geriatric medicine, is an important and urgent imperative in the post-pandemic environment. We remain committed to working with the BGS in helping to ensure that this happens and I know that our latest fellows will be superb role models in encouraging others in this career path.”