I thought about what to discuss in\nmy blog and have kept coming back the word friendship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is almost 12 months to the day\nthat I was sat in Heathrow airport waiting for a flight to Brazil looking at\nthousands of people arriving and departing the UK. I waited for my flight,\nwatching the television, its subtitles reporting the worsening situation in\nChina, wondering if my fellow passenger, who had a medical N95 Respirator on\nthe top of their head, was wearing a new infection control method that was still\nin peer review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trip to Brazil was to plan and\nstart fieldwork in a remote part of Brazil to deploy Digital Health, to\ndiagnose and manage Hypertensive patients. I applied for a grant with my\ncolleague Prof Tom Ribeiro, a Cardiologist based at the Federal University of\nMinas Gerais, one of our University Partners and a WUN member institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tom and I met through a chance\nintroduction from Prof Myron Christodoulides (who I equally found by chance in\nfaculty), who was hosting Tom as a Visiting Dimond Jubilee Fellow. The\n30-minute planned hello meeting turned into a very long animated conversation\nabout Tom’s telehealth programme. Tom immediately invited me to visit and, two\nweeks later, I was in Brazil, giving the keynote at the UFMG and Hospital\nannual conference. Tom asked for a 45-minute talk!!! “It’s normal”,\nhe explained, I concatenated four PowerPoint presentations together and bought\na new tie for the talk!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tom and I have been good friends\never since, and I have been fortunate to meet his lovely family and enjoyed\nmany happy times with them over good food and with much laughter. I have the\ngreatest of respect for his humility and good humour and he is a prominent\njudge of good character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My overseas LMIC Colleagues\n(low-middle income countries) are always, asking about the other work that I am\ndoing with colleagues around the world, asking after my colleagues, even those\nthey never meet, when sometimes I am the only common link between them. I talk\nabout them with affection. It struck me that I have colleagues in many places\nworldwide, countries rich and poor, that have guided me to get involved in the\nbest and most desperate conditions of their health systems. They are some of\nthe most hardworking dedicated researchers and clinicians, and those closest to\nme have invited me into their homes and introduced me to their families while I\nhave been away a long way from my own home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
International work may sound\nexciting, even glamorous, but can be incredibly lonely. Hotels are no fun.\nThese friends and colleagues are extended family and become fantastic and\nenthusiastic partners to work alongside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As country borders started to\nclose worldwide, I returned from Brazil, and quickly numbers of COVID cases in\nthe UK grew. We all started working from home and then TEAMS!!! and I bet many\nof you had not heard of Teams till 2020. I had never met some of the people who\nbegan to contact me seeking advice about where they could get hold of clinical\ndata to understand this pandemic. The numbers of new people I met every day\njust grew and grew, from all over the University and Hospital, a symptom of our\nnew working methods?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interestingly, \n“new” colleagues I met were people within the faculty and broader\nuniversity, some of whom I knew by name but never really together worked\nclosely. We started to tackle considerable challenges, least, not the\nSouthampton Saliva Testing Programme, which I am sure most of you are aware. I\nshould make a note to Keith Godfrey, Paul Roderick and Hazel Inskip: we should\nhave been working together for years!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To get through all these endless\nteams\u2019 meetings, we have all got to know each other very well and have, I would\nsay, turned into close colleagues and friends. We made light-hearted jokes on\nnever-ending teams\u2019 meetings, yelling “KitKat” every time someone\nleft their virtual hand up or talked while on mute, a tally to publicly record\na fine of chocolate, to be paid in full when we can all meet in person again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a rare moment early in the\npandemic, Tom and I took the time to talk about the pandemic in Brazil, to\ncatch up on a plan to delay aspects of our research grant as Brazil went into\nlockdown and importantly, to check on each other’s family and health. During\nthat call, I talked about the Southampton testing programme and the worsening\nsituations in hospitals that I had heard from friends in Africa to Asia. One\nstands in my mind in a call from a friend “they are dying, but apparently\naccording to our government COVID is not here.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It struck me that these friends I\nam so lucky to work with are all very similar. What would happen if I\nintroduced them all to each other? Would they get on? What could we achieve?\nWould they all to become friends with each other and work as a “big\nClinical, Public Health, Digital family”?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I suggested my idea of bringing my\nclinical digital friends together to Tom, “Why not try it” he\nreplied. So in August, I tested my hypothesis and hosted two separate meetings\nof a very multidisciplinary group of friends and colleagues. One to talk about\nDigital Health and Non-Communicable Diseases. The other about Blast Injury.\nThese meetings continued, friends then invited their friends and so on. In\nthese online forums over the last six months, we have met regularly to talk\nthrough ideas and write grant applications. Interestingly these new friends are\nall working together, arrange working parties’ follow-up meetings of groups\nwork, quite spontaneously and without planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In all these meetings, \nwe got to know new people, made new partnerships and more importantly, new\nfriends. Additionally, I had seen colleagues showing a real increase in care\nfor one another, a mindful and pastoral relationship with colleagues. Closer to\nhome, my team who are all great friends in work and out, have been even more\nevident, through messages and conversations they have online and in their\nWhatsApp group, and the weekly quiz has been heartfelt, honest and supportive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our international Clinical Fellows\nreturned to Sri Lanka They remained in conversation socially with the\ndepartment, with news of their new clinical jobs and families that they had\nbeen away from for over a year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As one of the new Associate Deans\nof International, a role I share with Ruihua, international partnerships is one\nof our key focus areas that we want to strengthen, both for existing\nrelationships and to make new ones. We want you to be a part of that effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The importance of friendship,\npersonally and professionally, is commonplace in some cultures with the\ngreeting “My friend James, how are you?” or introduction “this\nis our friend James from Southampton University”. The relationships we\nbuild, through our communication and actions are essential with our\ninternational partners. When building diplomacy, take a moment to think about\nthe times you have been cared for by international colleagues, friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hope internationally, as a\nfaculty and broader university, we can all continue to benefit from the joy of\nworking with old friends and finding new ones along the way, tackling together\nthe complex challenges that are critical to our planet’s future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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