Bolus: education delivered stat

Gehan Soosaipillai and Lina Pereira are members of the Transforming End of Life Care team, and have been embedded within the Lymphoma team at UCLH for the last 12 months. Will Townsend is a Lymphoma consultant and joins us for his third Bolus episode today. We focus on the topic of 'how can End of Life care be improved'? We discuss Advanced and Parallel care planning, Coordinate my Care, when to initiate Do Not Attempt Resuscitation discussions, tips for effective communication and whether...

Following on from his episode on Acute Graft Versus Host Disease (GVHD), Ronjon Chakraverty returns to tackle Chronic GVHD.

We are again joined by UCLH Consultant Microbiologist Vanya Gant, for a sobering discussion on the increasing difficulty antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is causing in healthcare. As the era of effective antibiotics fades, we discuss the causes and potential ways forward. We look at how phages and plasmids can spread AMR traits across the bacterial ecology of a hospital. How rapidly dividing pathogens such as E. coli gain evolutionary advantages in developing AMR due to selection pressures....

Haemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis is being diagnosed ever more as it becomes more widely known and better understood. We ask UCLH Consultant Rheumatologist Jessica Manson to give us some insight into Primary and Secondary HLH, including the various diseases that can precipitate a Secondary case, such as rheumatology conditions, lymphoproliferative disorders and infections (including COVID-19). If you've ever found yourself confused by HLH, this is the episode for you.

Jeremy Brown is a Respiratory Consultant at UCLH, with an interest in the lung complications patients experience following chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation. We discuss the issues caused by Bacterial Pneumonia, PCP, Fungal infections like Aspergillosis, CMV, Lung GVHD, Organising Pneumonia and TB.

Jon Lambert is a Haematologist at UCLH, and specialises in the treatment of Lymphoma and Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPNs). We ask him to give us insight into the presentation, diagnosis, treatment and long term impact of two common MPNs, Essential Thrombocythaemia and Polycythaemia Vera.

Deepak Suri is a Hepatologist and Gastroenterologist at UCLH and the Whittington. He joins us to discuss all things liver, including Hepatitis, VOD, GVHD and Haemochromatosis.

In this episode we look at how T-cell based therapies are being developed for use in solid cancers. Claire Roddie is a UCLH consultant specialising in CAR T-cell treatment and discusses tumour infiltrating lymphocytes, neo-antigen receptors, checkpoint inhibitors and the barriers that need to be overcome to develop effective immunotherapy treatments for solid cancers.

We invited back consultant virologist Gee Yen Shin and pharmacist Marian Salek to discuss the preparations being made for this winter. The conversation revolves mainly around the value of widespread uptake of the flu vaccine amongst healthcare professionals.

Dr Ashu Wechalekar joins in our first of ten episodes that will make up Series 5 of Bolus. Ashu is a renowned expert in Amyloidosis, and carries out his clinical and research work at the National Amyloidosis Centre at the Royal Free Hospital. Don't miss this comprehensive run through of this fascinating disorder.

In our final (planned) COVID-19 episode, we are joined by intensivist Mervyn Singer, to discuss the treatments that were used in ICU for patients with severe COVID-19. In the first third we discuss the preparations that took place to get a London critical care unit ready for a pandemic. Then in the middle section, we delve into what treatments proved the most valuable, from invasive and non-invasive ventilation, proning, sedation and paralysis strategies, anti-coagulation and steroids....

Elaine Thorpe is the UCH matron for Critical Care, one of the largest intensive care departments in the UK. We ask her to give us some insight into how her unit was prepared and reconfigured to cope with the eye of the COVID-19 storm. As increasing numbers of very unwell patients were admitted due to COVID-19, pressure on staff continued to mount. We discuss with Elaine how they were able to cope during this period, as well as the after effects that wouldn't become known until weeks later.

Haematology consultant Kwee Yong joins us to discuss the immunomodulatory drugs (such as Dexamethasone, Anakinra, Tocilizumab and Ibrutinib) being evaluated as possible options to treat severe COVID-19.

UCLH Haematology consultant Marie Scully gives a concise summary of the effects COVID-19 has on coagulation and risks presented by thrombosis.

In this latest fascinating podcast on COVID-19, divisional clinical director and infectious diseases consultant Mike Brown talks about what UCLH has discovered so far about the novel coronavirus – identifying unusual symptoms, discovering which tests are proving to be the most useful and other important lessons learnt along the way. Mike was talking to Sarah Jordan, a ward sister on T16 South Haematology and her colleague Gavin Cooper, a haematology clinical practice facilitator.

In this series of podcasts on COVID-19 with UCLH leaders, chief executive Marcel Levi reflects on the challenges we've faced over the last three months, and changes to come in the future. Marcel was interviewed by Gavin Cooper, a haematology senior clinical practice facilitator and Sarah Jordan, the ward sister of T16 South Haematology.

Consultant virologist Gee Yen Shin joins us to discuss why this coronavirus continues to pose particular challenges, now and in the future.

In the latest of a series of podcasts on COVID-19, Gavin Cooper, a haematology clinical practice facilitator and his colleague Sarah Jordan, a ward sister on T16 South, talk to UCLH director of strategy Laura Churchward about the importance of testing NHS staff for COVID-19. “If you have symptoms, please, please, please, get a test,” says Laura who is leading on staff testing in North Central London. Under a self-referral programme, thousands of staff or their family members have already...

In the latest of a series of podcasts on COVID-19, Gavin Cooper, a haematology clinical practice facilitator and his colleague Sarah Jordan, a ward sister on T16 South, talk to Dr Lisa Monaghan, head of the staff psychological and welfare service, and Jane Keep, head of staff engagement and experience.

In the first of a series of podcasts on COVID-19 with UCLH leaders, chief executive Marcel Levi reflects on the challenges we all face in the coming weeks and how we can prepare. “(those colleagues who) work in security to those in our telephone centres – they are as important as our intensive care nurses. That is the spirit at UCLH.” Marcel was interviewed by Gavin Cooper, a haematology senior clinical practice facilitator and Sarah Jordan, the ward sister of T16 South Haematology.