Dr Rachel Myles
With a longstanding commitment to a career in academic cardiology, I am particularly interested in the mechanisms underlying life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias.
Before entering Specialist Training in Cardiology I completed a PhD in cardiac electrophysiology and was keen to continue my research alongside my clinical training and so applied for, and was awarded, a Clinical Lectureship.
The Clinical Lectureship was crucial in allowing me to complete demanding clinical training in an interventional specialty, while also developing an experimental research programme.
From the start, the Clinical Lectureship supported me to be organised, plan ahead and prioritise my academic goals.
My clinical supervisors agreed that as a Clinical Lecturer I should be allowed to single accredit in Cardiology from the start of my training. Meaning I was able to spend all of my clinical time training in Cardiology.
In each clinical placement, I planned with my clinical supervisors how my research time could be arranged to maximise my clinical training and reduce any impact on the department.
Without the status of the Clinical Lectureship I would not have had access to these considerations.
Key to the success of my Clinical Lectureship was the flexibility that it afforded me.
Throughout my clinical training I was able to tailor my time spent in research and clinical work to my changing goals and commitments.
I spent periods at 50% research when I needed to perform series of experiments or write a paper and I spent time at 100% clinical when I was training in interventional procedures in the EP lab.
This flexibility was particularly important when I secured a post-doctoral scholarship at the world-leading Bers’ laboratory at the University of California, Davis funded by a BHF Travel Award.
My year out-of-programme was approved and I was able to complete this hugely successful research post without impact on my clinical training.
During my Lectureship I developed important internal collaborations and acted as Co-PI on several successful project grants based in Glasgow as well as being awarded a grant from the nationally-contested Starter Grant for Clinical Lecturers scheme.
I published several original papers including high-impact manuscripts in journals such as Circulation Research.
Developing a series of key national and international collaborations I began to develop my own research programme.
Ultimately, I was successful in securing a Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellowship, which now funds my independent research programme which I combine with my clinical work as a consultant cardiologist with a subspecialty practice in cardiac electrophysiology.
The Clinical Lectureship allowed me to develop my clinical and academic skills in an integrated and complimentary way and was instrumental in achieving my goal of becoming an academic cardiologist.
Dr Rachel Myles - Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellow and Clinical Senior Lecturer, University of Glasgow