This month we are exploring recovery. As Cassidy has been busy finishing her dissertation, join Cerys as they learn how to recover through stories about long Covid community led research, transformative technology in the NHS, and a memorial garden built by students in the Institute of Education.

With thanks to our guest speakers:

Dr Owain Rhys Hughes is the founder and CEO of Cinapsis. He has over 13 years of experience working as a doctor and he is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. Cinapsis SmartReferrals is an NHSX-approved platform that makes it easy for clinicians to communicate and share information to make smarter patient referrals. Currently used by 16 NHS Trusts across the UK, Cinapsis' secure platform gives GPs, paramedics, optometrists and NHS 111 operators immediate access to specialist advice, resulting in more efficient triage, faster decision-making and fewer unnecessary referrals.

Dr Athena Akrami

Dr Athena Akrami joined the faculty at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre, UCL, in October 2018. She obtained her BA in Biomedical Engineering from Tehran Polytechnic (Amirkabir University of Technology) and her PhD in Computational Neuroscience from International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA, Trieste), with Alessandro Treves. She was a postdoctoral fellow at SISSA where she worked with Mathew Diamond, and then at Princeton University where she was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellow and worked with Carlos Brody on Parametric Working Memory.

After contracting COVID-19 in March 2020, Athena developed long COVID and was integral in uniting long COVID sufferers and conducting research that has been key for the understanding and treatment of long covid symptoms.

Dr Susan McGrath

Dr Susan McGrath is an Honorary Fellow of the Centre for Post-14 Education and Work at the Institute of Education. Her research focus on young people’s decision-making shows how teachers, parents, schools and employers influence education and career choices. In the wider UCL community, Susan is better known for her work as project lead of the IOE Gardens, including Sarah’s Garden and the Bar Terrace. The gardens make a significant contribution to the UCL Biodiversity Plan and, in keeping with the IOE’s global status, operate as an outdoor classroom with a distinctly international flavour.

For more information and to access the transcript: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/made-at-ucl/podcasts/s2-ep9-recovery

Date of episode recording: 15/08/20

Duration: 30:51

Language of episode: English

Presenter: Cassandra Martin

Guests: Owain Rhys Hughes, Athena Akrami, Susan McGrath

Producer: Cerys Bradley