Helen Ward (scientist)

Helen Ward FRCP FFPH is a British physician who is Professor of Public Health at Imperial College London and director of the patient experience research centre.[2] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ward called for the Government of the United Kingdom to be more proactive in their response to the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2.[1][3]

Helen Ward

FRCP FFPH
Alma materUniversity of Sheffield (MB ChB)
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (MSc)
City, University of London (PhD)
Scientific career
FieldsSexually transmitted infections
HIV
Patient experience
Breast cancer
Genomics[1]
InstitutionsSt Mary's Hospital, London
Imperial College London
ThesisSex work and health in London (2010)
Websitewww.imperial.ac.uk/people/h.ward

Early life and education

Ward trained in medicine at the University of Sheffield where she was awarded a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MB ChB) degree in 1981.[4][2] In 1984 Ward joined St Mary's Hospital, London as a junior doctor. She specialised in the medicine of genitourinary systems and public health.[5] She earned a Master of Science (MSc) degree in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.[6] She completed her PhD at City, University of London, where her research investigated sex work and the health of sex workers in London.[7] She studied how several determinants, including social class and gender, impact the likelihood of acquiring a sexually transmitted infection.[6][8]

Research and career

Ward has dedicated her career to understanding the epidemiology of sexually transmitted infections.[2][9] In 1986 Ward helped to found the Praed Street project, a sexual health clinic that provides medical services for sex workers.[10][11] Throughout her career Ward researched the health of sex workers, looking to prevent the spread of HIV and other communicable diseases.[12] Her study, which followed sex workers in London from the mid '80s to 2000s, was the first longitudinal project to analyse the impact of prostitution on women.[13] She showed that sex workers frequently experienced violence, and that their physical and mental health was impacted by stigma and criminalisation.[13][14] In 1993 she established EUROPAP, the European Intervention projects AIDS prevention for prostitutes.[15]

Ward was promoted to Professor of Public Health at Imperial College London in 2009.[16] Since 2011 she has led the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Patient Experience Research Centre.[17] Her research combines anthropology and ethnography with clinical medicine in an effort to improve health care quality.[5]

Coronavirus leadership

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ward became concerned that mixed messages from the UK government had confused the public about how to avoid catching the disease.[18] She described Boris Johnson's proposed herd immunity as "worrying, and a distraction from the important vital goal of flattening the peak of the epidemic".[19]

Ward worked with the Imperial College London Patient Experience Research Centre and YouGov to understand public sentiment surrounding SARS-CoV-2.[20] She reported that 77% of the public were worried about the outbreak in the UK, and that 88% would isolate if recommended to by a health professional.[20] She worked with the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Abdul Latif Jameel Institute for Disease and Emergency Analytics (J-IDEA) to create an online course that helped to explain the science of SARS-CoV-2.[21][22] The course, which is hosted on Coursera, covers basic epidemiology, economics and communication.[21] It was updated as more information about the virus became available.[21]

In April 2020 Ward wrote an op-ed for The Guardian that criticised the United Kingdom government's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.[23] Despite mounting evidence from the World Health Organization and researchers in Wuhan, the UK did not monitor community cases, contact trace or immediately enforce a stringent lockdown. On 13 April 2020 Ward tweeted, "It's very sad that so many people have died, and so many more are desperately ill because politicians refused to listen to advice".[24] In The Guardian Ward wrote, "Scientists like us said lock down earlier; we said test, trace, isolate. But they decided they knew better".[23] She believes that the strict social distancing should have been enforced ten days earlier.[24] Ward has called for case isolation, increased testing and tracking and the suppression of transmissions in hospitals through the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). In particular, Ward called for an investigation into the health disparities experienced by black and minority ethnic patients.[23] When asked about why the outbreak worse in the United Kingdom than Germany, Ward remarked, "There was a lack of testing, lack of PPE, lack of ventilators and the lack of hospital beds and NHS capacity, a result of 10-year cuts,".[24]

Ward has linked her professional commentary to her personal political opinions, tweeting "'professional academic me' - doctor, professor - is separable from the me that cares about justice, equality and health. And that means kicking out the Tories, stopping Brexit, supporting Labour, opposing racism".[25]

Awards and honours

Ward is Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) and a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health (FFPH).

Selected publications
  • Ward, Helen; Rönn, Minttu (2011). "The contribution of STIs to the sexual transmission of HIV". Current Opinion in HIV AIDS. 5 (4): 305–10. doi:10.1097/COH.0b013e32833a8844. PMC 2923028. PMID 20543605.
  • Ward, Helen; Fidler, Sarah; Gerver, Sarah M.; Kim, Sung-Hee (2014). "Adherence to antiretroviral therapy in adolescents living with HIV: systematic review and meta-analysis". AIDS. 28 (13): 1945–56. doi:10.1097/QAD.0000000000000316. PMC 4162330. PMID 24845154.
  • Ward, Helen; Day, Sophie (1999). "Risky business: Health and safety in the sex industry over a 9 year period". Sexually Transmitted Infections. 75 (5): 340–343. doi:10.1136/sti.75.5.340. OCLC 775385630. PMC 1758230. PMID 10616360.
gollark: TuberOS is the "version name" for current potatOS.
gollark: TuberculOSis? It seems too similar.
gollark: Anyway, what should I replace "TuberOS" with?
gollark: Happy chicken, jakedacatman!
gollark: In any case, any recent potatOS and probably some not so recent ones *will* just autoupdate to the latest version - PotatOS Tau, 6.2 TuberOS, build fc886ddf.

References
  1. Helen Ward publications indexed by Google Scholar
  2. "Professor Helen Ward". imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  3. Helen Ward publications from Europe PubMed Central
  4. Helen Ward's ORCID 0000-0001-8238-5036
  5. "Professor Helen Ward on patient engagement". Imperial College London. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  6. "Hustling for health". imperial.ac.uk. Imperial College London. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  7. Ward, Helen (2010). Sex work and health in London. city.ac.uk (PhD thesis). City University. OCLC 757101419. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.516238.
  8. Ward, Helen; Day, Sophie (1999). "Risky business: Health and safety in the sex industry over a 9 year period". Sexually Transmitted Infections. 75 (5): 340–343. doi:10.1136/sti.75.5.340. OCLC 775385630. PMC 1758230. PMID 10616360.
  9. Helen Ward on Twitter
  10. Day, Sophie (2014). Sex Work, Mobility & Health. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-79280-2.
  11. "Praed Street Project (Sexual Health Clinic) | Westminster Community Information". westminstercommunityinfo.org. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  12. Ward, Helen (2003). "Hustling for Health" (PDF). who.int. World Health Organisation. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  13. Day, Sophie E; Ward, Helen (2007). "British policy makes sex workers vulnerable". BMJ : British Medical Journal. 334 (7586): 187. doi:10.1136/bmj.39104.638785.59. ISSN 0959-8138. PMC 1781978. PMID 17255611.
  14. UCL (2010-02-19). "Video - Sex Workers: Stigma and barriers to health". UCL News. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  15. "European Network for HIV/STD Prevention in Prostitution" (PDF). TAMPEP. Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  16. Disease, Infectious. "Imperial's new Professor of Public Health, Helen Ward – Infectious Disease – Podcast". podtail.com. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  17. "About us". imperial.ac.uk. Imperial College London. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  18. "'There are mixed messages' over virus advice, says Professor Helen Ward". channel4.com. Channel 4. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  19. Vaughan, Adam (2020). "Why is the UK approach to coronavirus so different to other countries?". newscientist.com. New Scientist. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  20. "Report 10 - Public response to UK Government recommendations on COVID-19: population survey, 17-18 March 2020". Imperial College London. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  21. "COVID19: Imperial launches free online course exploring science behind outbreak". imperial.ac.uk. Imperial College London. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  22. "Science Matters: Let's Talk About COVID-19". coursera.org. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  23. Ward, Helen (2020). "We scientists said lock down. But UK politicians refused to listen". theguardian.com. The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  24. Roach, April (2020-04-14). "Leading scientist claims Government failed to prepare for pandemic". standard.co.uk. London: Evening Standard. Retrieved 2020-04-17.
  25. https://twitter.com/profhelenward/status/1203443701818761217?s=20
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