---
# System prepended metadata

title: 'Welcome to HDR UK Elevate - Prof. Sir Aziz Sheikh '

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![image](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/BJnykKgWex.png)


# ECR Elevate

![co-hosts Welcome](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/HkS57gP60.png)

# Welcome to HDR UK Elevate 
This is the third talk in this series of events. 

## Agenda: 

* Introductions (Fatemeh-Elliot-Hazel)
* A Dialouge with Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh
* Live Q&A from participants 


# HDRUK Elevate 

![Screenshot-2024-12-17-155613-1024x376](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/HJ-96Hlpyl.png)
In September, HDR UK hosted the inaugural ECR Forum which welcomed a group of multidisciplinary and emerging researchers and technologists – working or studying in health data science – into one space. The forum gave us an opportunity to meet, collaborate and discuss challenges and opportunities unique to early-stage researchers. It also allowed us to learn from one another and a diverse range of speakers and workshop leaders.


[Read our blog post](https://www.hdruk.ac.uk/news/showcasing-and-bringing-together-emerging-health-data-researchers-and-technologists/)


Through this series of events our main goal is to address what fuels successful health data research collaborations. 

ECR community often face long waits until finding the opportunity to shadow these processes and even then it is often focused on an institutional or team approach. Now aiming to bring experiences together and grow as a community, in these series of events we will bring together a well curated experience talks covering aspects of research which are often untouched. 


**This is ECR safe room so feel free to through ideas, brain storm, share stories and talk research!**

[Elevate - ECR seminar series](https://www.hdruk.ac.uk/study-and-train/our-phd-students-and-fellows/elevate-ecr-seminar-series/)


# Introductions

> Name-Surname | Institution | Fun fact/experience

*  Fatemeh Torabi | University of Cambridge & Swansea University | My longest peer review todate have been 18 months | Fun fact: I have been doing karate for over 25 years
* Elliot McClenaghan | LSHTM | Longest peer review has been around 10 months | Fun fact: my brother is a current Olympic champion gymnast 
* Hazel Keys | HDR UK | Programme Manager at HDR UK - I love my job! | Fun fact: I taught English in South Korea for 2 years

* Matthew Knight | University of Leeds - PhD Student on medicines driver programme| Fun fact: after finishing school I hitch-hiked around Iceland for a month

* Naomi Launders | University College London - HDR UK Big Data for Complex Diseases fellow | fun fact: In myspare time I teach 10 year olds to drive lego robots using Python and to build and race electric go karts!

* Dobgima Mofor | Information Analyst - Public Health Wales | Fun fact: I have a Youtube video with over 10k views


## Biography

![image](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/Hy8qWte-eg.png)

# Questions 
Please feel free to use this space to type your questions 

* Opening question: Receiving a knighthood is one of the highest accolades in the UK, what advice would you give to early career researchers who aspire to make the kind of impactful contributions that are recognised at such high levels?

* MK: As a clinician who collaborates with data scientists to address healthcare challenges, what do you think is the most important quality as a clinician needs to enable effective collaboration with researchers from a data science background? (As an ECR from a clinical background)


# Live notes
Please feel free to use this space to share your notes from the talk

* developing relationships alogn the way
* producing high quality research pieces
* Undrstanding the root of questions 
* digitazation of health systems are happening globally and it should be considered as one of the focuses on establishing teaching and learning opportunities as well as research designs 
* How do we decide whats next? experiences from EVAEII: the establishment of the Scotland EAVEII was a collective need from the researchers and policy stakeholders when decidin gwhat to do next it is important to talk to policy makers to undrestand what they see important next - If it's asked by policy makers then the translation is much more straightforward because they are waiting for the answers - another approach is scientific driven questions to try to find 

* Research for impact: hearing the 

* T-shape researcher - developing genuine depth in one research are and you develop the relationships with main stakeholders in the research area
* Expand from T-shape on knowing main stakeholders
* then find the niece to focus on a specific domain 

* Usually it will happen organically over time

* How to get access to GPs and primary care insight? They might be part of your departments so make use of their insights

* Thank you for organising this meeting. I commend Prof Sir Aziz for his contributions. I would like to ask is there any strategies on how to work with primary care stakeholders (more specifically general practices) to increase use of real world data/machine learning to inform patient care, but also efficiency and cost effective services, where there is much reluctance at the moment from what I have experienced. Any ideas you could share to an independent researcher. Many thanks: Engaging with people and taking inputs to achieve a robust design 

Mohammad Al Sallakh: Hype of AI and how do they find the generative AI and automatic generation of evidence such as systematic reviews?

* As an editor in chief : we are happy for people and contributors to use AI but state explicitly how they used AI in generation of their work without being general on their statements
* Another approach is to use AI as a reviewer for journals 
* For researchers doing a systematic review is a great way to get engaged with critical appraisal of litreature - moving forward in the next decade Prof. Sheikh sees most of systematic reviews being conducted by AI

* In the context of the journal Prof. Sheikh edits, they reject a paper after 20 approach to find reviewers a paper will get rejected

* For every paper that you submit agree to review at least one 

* As a clinician who collaborates with data scientists to address healthcare challenges, what do you think is the most important quality as a clinician needs to enable effective collaboration with researchers from a data science background? (As an ECR from a clinical background): Ideally you want people on the pulse to clinically ground your question as well as methodologist who clearly undrestand the methods and clearly getting connect to people who undrestand the datasets very well - having these 3 pillars ensures that you can ground your question robustly


* Mobility in research: inherantly there are a lot of benefits that you gain through moving between institutions and in different places and countries - it can be eye openning 
* you will develop relationships 
* you open your eyes in new opportunities 
* Shorter term secondments or research visits
* As putting a fellowship together specifically in the UK you would have been marked down for this but it is changing now with a much more sympathetic panels decisions 

* Working out whats the career end goal for you and working towards that is one way of working it that way

* Being opportunistic in methods and ensuring that you have those under your belt before moving towards the next steps 
* Fellowship panels get excited about new set of mentors as you move to independence : changing the nature of the relationship is quite difficult 

* Advisory roles with WHO : usually you will be reached out once you have something to contribute / if you have something to contribute look out for opportunities and throw your hat in the field but be aware that they are more receptive to you when they reach out to you

* More authentic engagement are encouraged when you declare conflict of interests - as gaining trust are 

A few pieces of advice: 
* Make use of the fantastic data assets in the UK - HDR has been great in brining all of these together, world class universities across the whole of the UK
* Recognise the resoruces that you have access to and be patient with the developmental processes in data access and research 

* Do a few things really well 

* UK data science is about quality not quantity

* Team up with brilliant people and land the quality pieces in the right places
* We all have our limitations so constructing good teams 

* Enjoy the journey and nurtute the relationships be generous by inclusion of people in publication, research design and etc. 






# Resources
Please feel free to add any relevant resources 

# Upcoming ECR Elevate talks

Check our website for upcoming events: https://www.hdruk.ac.uk/study-and-train/our-phd-students-and-fellows/elevate-ecr-seminar-series/


# Evaluation survey

[Go to the survey](https://forms.office.com/e/EXhy8BcZsV?origin=lprLink)
![image](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/rkikKZg-xg.png)


 
# Keep in touch

* MailBox: learn@hdruk.ac.uk
* Slack group: https://healthdataresearchuk.slack.com/archives/C07MGSM6VU7
