Dr Cat Atkin MBChB (Hons), MRCP, MD, FHEA

• Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education, University of Birmingham, 2021
• MD, University of Birmingham, 2019
• MRCP, Royal College of Physicians, 2014
• MBChB (Honours), University of Birmingham, 2011

Cat completed her medical degree at University of Birmingham in 2011 and remained in the West Midlands for her foundation and internal medicine training. She joined the acute care group in Inflammation & Ageing as a clinical research fellow in 2015. Her MD research was focussed on diagnostic delay in multiple myeloma, particularly the pathways patients had taken through health services to reach their diagnosis, and potential approaches to early identification through use of routine healthcare data and targeted screening in acute care populations. Cat was the first NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in acute medicine, and completed higher specialty training in acute internal medicine and general internal medicine in the West Midlands.

Cat’s research focusses on pathways through acute care services, and how acute medicine services can be organised to deliver high quality care for patients with acute problems. She is particularly interested in pathways through Same Day Emergency Care and Acute Medical Units, where she works as a consultant physician in her clinical role. She is also part of PIONEER, the health data research hub for acute care, which uses electronic healthcare data to help understand how acute care can be improved.

Cat is the current lead for the Society for Acute Medicine national Benchmarking Audit (SAMBA) which assesses acute medicine service performance in the UK, and is a member of the Society for Acute Medicine Quality Improvement and Research committees. She is passionate about expanding research in acute medicine, has experience supporting those new to research and undertaking their first steps, and delivers introductory teaching in research to acute medicine trainees nationally.

MBChB:

• Year 1: Professional and Academic Skills
• Year 2: Infection, Immunology and Haematology
• Clinical communication
• Personal interest project: Same day emergency care

Cat is interested in supervising doctoral research students who are interested in research in the field of acute internal medicine, and/or in patient pathways through urgent and emergency care services.

Cat’s research aims to improve patient pathways through acute medicine services. This includes Same Day Emergency Care, where she is particularly interested in understanding how we can identify patients that are suitable for these services. She is interested in modelling how acute services function, to ensure we can deliver efficient care for all patient cohorts, including patients with frailty and multimorbidity, and to enable effective service planning, including an understanding of staffing and physical requirements. Cat’s research also includes work aiming to understand how we can best assess quality & performance in acute medicine services. Her research includes the use of routinely collected data from electronic healthcare records.