Surgical Sciences alumnus awarded Fulbright Scholarship for Harvard research

A recent graduate of the MSc in Surgical Science has been awarded a Royal College of Surgeons of England Fulbright Award that will support twelve months of research at Harvard University on one of the most prestigious and selective scholarship programmes operating worldwide.

David Metcalfe graduated with distinction in 2012 from the MSc in Surgical Sciences, an online distance learning programme run by The University of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He is currently training to be a trauma and orthopaedic surgeon at the University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire.

This research will develop work started for his MSc at The University of Edinburgh into a PhD with the University of Warwick. As a Fulbright Scholar, David will work with Professor Ali Salim MD FACS at Harvard Medical School to explore international differences in outcomes for major trauma patients.

David has been selected from a strong applicant pool to examine outcomes for severely injured patients in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. He will spend his time as a Fulbright Scholar working at the Center for Surgery and Public Health (CSPH), which is a joint initiative of Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health.

This scholarship is an opportunity for the NHS to draw on the experiences of other countries that have been managing severely injured patients in dedicated ‘trauma centres’ for many years. It is also a personal opportunity to learn more about the United States and a model of healthcare that is still very different from our own.