31 August 2011
Suzanne Mason (MBBS, FRCS, FCEM, MD) has become the United Kingdom’s first female Professor of Emergency Medicine.
Professor Mason, who gave her inaugural lecture in February, became one of only seven Professors of Emergency Medicine in the whole country, with the award requiring an exceptional record of clinical and academic service.
She said: “It’s a great honour to have been promoted to this role. I am passionate about research into Emergency Medicine, and this role will allow me to concentrate even more on research that helps to improve patient care.
“Emergency Medicine is a vital area of study and I aim to help enable the Trust and the university to work even more effectively together in this specialty.”
Professor Mason’s main research interests centre around evaluating complex interventions in emergency and urgent care, evaluating new roles and developing alternative pathways of care. A recent example was a Yorkshire-wide project that saw paramedics trained as Emergency Care Practitioners providing treatment for selected conditions in elderly patients in the home, thus helping to prevent visits to the emergency department. Her study showed this to be as safe as a hospital visit.
Professor Mason, who qualified in medicine from London University in 1990, divides her time between research at the University and clinical work at the Northern General Hospital. She is Director of Health Services Research at ScHARR and co-directs a program for academic fellows in emergency medicine. She is a member of the UK’s College of Emergency Medicine, where she is shortly to become Chair of the Research Committee.