Pioneering healthcare from Highlands focus of new series of talks

3rd June 2013

The Highlands and Islands have an incredible history of shaping healthcare services right across the UK. A new series of talks will explore this while looking at current and future innovations being developed in Inverness and around the world.

The new cafe MED series will bring local and internationally renowned figures in the biosciences and medicine to Waterstones in the Eastgate centre from June until September. The free, informal discussions require no booking and take place once a month and commence at 7pm.

The series kicks off on the 18th of June with an exploration of the ground-breaking Dewar Report which led to the formation of Highlands and Islands Medical Service of 1924, a precursor to the modern day NHS. Dr Steve Mccabe and Dr Miles Mack will lead the session, explaining how the report, although conducted over 100 years ago, remains relevant to this day. Given the local interest, the event will also be available as a live Gaelic translation.

Professor Philip Wilson, Director of the Centre for Rural Health said, “This new series of talks brings together the public with leading experts in an informal setting to share stories of how everyday lives are affected by progress in medicine. Some of the topics will relate to the unique rural challenges that we have in the Highlands and others look at groundbreaking research happening in our doorstep and further afield.”

Future events in the series will feature research into dementia at the University of Aberdeen and a talk on autism from one of the world’s leading figures in psychiatric research, Professor Christopher Gillberg from the University of Gothenburg. New digital technologies that aid rural healthcare provision will also be discussed in the programme, featuring work being carried out at the Centre for Rural Health.

Cafe MED Inverness is organised by the University of Aberdeen’s Public Engagement with Research Unit alongside the Centre for Rural Health in Inverness and is supported by a science engagement grant from the Scottish Government.

Dr Heather Doran of the Public Engagement with Research Unit commented “The cafe discussion programmes in Aberdeen have proven a real hit with audiences and we hope to extend this to the people in Inverness and surrounding areas. We have a fascinating range of speakers and subject for this first series and we’re also pleased to have been able to work with the University’s Gaelic language team on the series.

Full details of all events in the University’s cafe series are available at www.engagingaberdeen.co.uk and additional information on the Inverness series can be found on Facebook -
https://www.facebook.com/CafeMedInverness