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London YPAG January 2020 meeting

By London YPAG,

Hi guys, how are you? It’s Alexis. I hope you are doing well in the flurry of corona virus and quarantine. Sorry this is very late; I have been busy with school and other extracurricular activities that I do.
Last YPAG on January 25th 2020 the meeting was held in a new venue at the DRIVE offices in Russell square, (it was really cool).

First, we had an ice breaker to introduce yourself to newer members and people you haven’t spoken to before.

Then at 11.15 some researchers, Anna Martinez and Gabriela Petrof came to talk about MissionEB an acronym for (Double blinded placebo control study of) Mesenchymal Intravenous Stromal cell Infusions in children with recessive dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa. The study is to find out whether MSCs are better than placebo, (MSCs are mesenchymal stromal cells they are found in any organ and they form connective tissue to help the body. Placebo is an inert, chemically inactive, substance which is designed to have no medicinal value. It would just make the person’s body and them think that, `Oh, I have had medicine, as it looks like it thus I must get better and the body subconsciously gets better without actual medicine. Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) is a skin condition which makes the skin extremely fragile, like butterfly wings.

At 12.15 after the break Suhaym Mubeen, an orthodontist, came in to talk about Alveolar Bone Grafting.It is a surgery to add bone to the gum ridge in a child who was born with both a cleft lip and a cleft palate. A cleft lip or palate is a gap in the skin muscle or bone of the upper lip. For people with a cleft lip or palate at roughly 8-11 they have an Alveolar Bone Grafting, and he came to ask ‘What is the best way to give information to children undergoing an alveolar bone graft’. Mr. Mubeen told us that he usually explains with descriptions, information sheets, and an ACE video, something new they have developed.

At 2pm, Helen Robberts and Lucy Natara came in to talk about the GOSH clean air framework, they wanted to talk to us about what we think can help to promote clean air in and around Great Ormond Street and to see if anyone of us was interested.
A clean air hospital is a hospital that:
● Is a role model to other hospitals in the NHS and shows leadership through minimising the air pollution that such hospitals within the NHS create.
● Educates staff, patients and the public on how pollution can affect their health
● Supports policy measures as well encourages and supports others to improve air quality
They also think about:
● Travel – things such as hospital travel and patient travel planning
● Deliveries & procurement – who are they buying from, is what we are buying environmentally friendly, how are we going to collect it or how is it going to be delivered?

GOSH did a clean Air Play Street supporting this

At 2.45 for 10 minutes Steven Towndrow, came to visit us, he worked in genomics, genomics sounds extremely similar to genetics doesn’t it? , well that’s because it is – genomics is the testing of a singular gene rather than genetics testing all of them. He came to talk about how we can best support health professionals to have better conversations about genetics & genetic testing? Then asked if things such as easy to read information or Q&A answers where suitable.

Well that basically sums up all that happened last session, see you guys next time.
Hope you guys stay safe! 🙂