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A resident doctor from University Hospitals Birmingham won a prestigious award which gave her the chance to share her work at a major conference.

Dr Jun Yu Chen, an internal medicine trainee at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham and an academic clinical fellow (ACF) in cardiology at the University of Birmingham, was one of three national winners of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) Turner-Warwick lecturer awards for 2025 – 2026.

These awards celebrate excellence in clinical research, medical education, and quality improvement.

Jun, the winner in the quality improvement category, presented a lecture at the RCP’s ‘Update in medicine’ conference in Birmingham at the end of February.

During her presentation, she discussed cardiovascular disease in the UK, the focus on prevention in the NHS 10-year plan and gave an overview of a novel secondary prevention cardiology clinic at UHB and its promising results.

Jun has been working with Dr Mark Thomas, one of the associate professors and cardiology consultants, who does a lot of work in preventive cardiology.

Dr Thomas established the cardiology prevention clinic in Birmingham in October 2020. A proportion of patients who have had a recent acute coronary syndrome (heart attack) are seen in a specialist prevention clinic.

The clinic focuses on optimising medications, particularly lipid-lowering treatments, as well as diabetes and blood pressure medications. Additionally, lifestyle advice surrounding diet, smoking cessation and exercise is given. Patients who have attended the specialist clinic have had significantly reduced cardiovascular events. 

Reflecting on the achievement, Jun said: “Presenting at the conference in front of 200 clinicians was one of the highlights of my career so far. It was my first time delivering a lecture at a conference and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. 

“As part of the lecturer scheme, I received expert guidance on developing my lecture from one of the senior members of the RCP, Dr Aklak Choudhury. It was an honour to be selected, and I am so grateful to my supervisor, Dr Mark Thomas, the RCP, the UHB team, and the Integrated Clinical Academic Training Team, who have made this opportunity possible.”