The Wadham College Medical Society was inaugurated in September 2007 at a meeting of alumni, current students and staff held in the Holywell Music Room. A lively panel discussion on medical education and training was followed by the inaugural Stone Lecture delivered in great style without any notes by Dr Allan Chapman on “Edward Stone and the origins of experimental medicine in Oxford”.
At the inaugural meeting, it was agreed that membership should be open to all previous and current Wadham students and tutors in physiology, medicine and medically-related research. The stated aims of the Society are to help members stay in touch with each other and with the College through means such as newsletters, a website, reunions and occasional events between major reunions. A Student Section was formed to foster the integration in College of all resident clinical and pre-clinical students and those involved in medical research. The Alumnus Section was formed with the aim of contributing to the education and professional development of Wadham students through means such as speaking at meetings of the student section, offers of work experience, and financial support by annual subscription. The Society’s affairs are governed by an elected committee consisting of the President, Stephen Goss, who has been medical tutor at Wadham for 33 years; a Secretary/Treasurer, Andrew Farmery (our founding Secretary and Treasurer, Michael Tunbridge, having stood down in 2010); three alumni – Richard Warner ( 1979), Sarah Huline-Dickens (1987), and Nishan Guha (1996); and ex-officio the Student President and one other member of the Student committee, one further senior member of the College, Mr Richard Stacey (a consultant neurosurgeon and Wadham clinical teacher); and the College Development Director.
Since the Society was started, it has gone from strength to strength thanks to the enthusiasm of the students led by their presidents, Tom Sutherland (2007/8), Mary Packer (08/09 ), Mohsin Khan (09/10), Kate Barrett (10/11), Robert Bakewell (11/12) and their committee members, guided by Andrew Farmery (Fellow in Physiology) and Sue Burge (Clinical Tutor to the College). There have been meetings of the Student Section each term with invited lecturers followed by informal buffet suppers, each attended by 20 to 30 members. The subjects of these talks have been wide ranging, for instance, over the last two years: Zebra fish models for inflammatory cell apoptosis by Dr Stephen Renshaw, Research fellow, Sheffield (MT09); Clinical Applications of deep-brain stimulation by Mr Alexander Green, Consultant and Senior Clinical Lecturer in Neurosurgery, Oxford (HT10); and Dealing with Exceptions by Dr Sarah Huline-Dickens, Consultant Psychiatrist and Tutor in Psychiatry, Peninsula Med School (TT10); Musculoskeletal mechanobiology – a little strain goes a long way by Dr Mark Thompson, Tutorial Fellow in Engineering and University Lecturer in Orthopaedic Biomechanics; The aid industry in Haiti – is there room for western psychiatry? by Dr Nick Rose, consultant psychiatrist, the International Medical Core; and The challenges of palliative care by Dr Bee Wee, consultant and senior clinical lecturer in palliative medicine, Fellow of Harris Manchester College.
The students also organize a welcome reception for freshers early in Michaelmas Term. All these events bring together clinical and pre-clinical students, researchers and teachers socially as well as academically. Over 20 alumni now regularly offer work experience placements for our students.
A meeting of the Society was held at the House of Commons in June 2009, hosted by Evan Harris (1985) , the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon at the time, and the Triennial Reunion meeting of the Society was held in the Moser Theatre at Wadham in September 2010. It was appropriate in the 400th anniversary of the founding of the College that talks were given by members of the Society. Our next triennial reunion will take place in College in the summer of 2013, and details will be sent round to members nearer the time.
The modest annual membership fee for alumni – still set at £15 – provides the Society with the buffer that it needs for reunion events and also subsidises the students' termly events. A number of alumni have this year set up more substantial standing orders, and this has enabled us to offer grants to undergraduates to help to cover expenses they sometimes have in connection with their FHS research projects and also to offer them a small number of travel grants. If any reading this would like to contribute in this way, please do contact Stephen.Goss@wadh.ox.ac.uk .
