Celebrating three years of the BU-UHD partnership

The partnership between Bournemouth University and University Hospitals Dorset has reached another milestone and is benefiting staff, students, patients and the people of Dorset.

Over the last year, both organisations have worked together to host successful public health and research events, have led programmes to develop staff and enabled new research studies to be launched and published.  

The number of joint research studies continues to increase, each one bringing new insights into understanding our health and shedding new light on the effectiveness of different treatments. This included a study into how different parts of the brain interact with each other after a cold water dip, helping to explain why people often feel more upbeat and alert after swimming outside or taking cold baths. 

The sold out, public health talk with Professor Sir Jonathan Van Tam was a great success as was two joint research-focused events.  Planning has begun already for a further research conference in 2024 and an expanding series of joint health talks. 

Each year many of our staff both clinical and non clinical undertake further study at BU and many teams across the hospitals host BU students on placements. Some 1,796 BU students benefited from real life, hands-on experience in the workplace through placements over the last year, helping us deliver services in a range of departments including pathology, physiotherapy and communications. We are learning from BU students at UHD in long placements / internships and hope to roll out these internships to more departments next year.

Dr Ruth Williamson, consultant radiologist and visiting professor for Bournemouth University, said: "The vision for our partnership was to work together across all four faculties of the university. A huge thank you to everyone who has given their time energy and intellect to bring our two organisations closer together to benefit patients and residents in Dorset and beyond."

Professor Anand Pandyan, Executive Dean for the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences at BU, added: “As our partnership matures it has been uplifting see the impact of the work directly benefiting the people of Dorset and beyond and the workforce within the region. I would also like to personally thank the staff at UHD for enriching the training our students and for the contributing to research supervision.”