Dr Michael Graham SHELDON

Produced on November 10, 2007
My CV consists of the following sections

For a Word file copy of this CV click here

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Current Appointments
Since retiring from full time practice my current portfolio career consists of the following appointments

Tower Hamlets PCT performers list, undertaking GP locum surgeries since 2001

GMC – Medical Member of the Fitness to Practice Panels since 2001

NCAA (National Clinical Assessment Authority) – Medical Assessor 2002-6

FHSAA (Family Health Service Appeals Authority), Medical panel member since 2002

Appeals Tribunals for Sickness benefits, medical panel member 2001-6

GP Appraiser for Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Islington since 2003

Whole Person Clinic at Barkantine Medical Centre, Isle of Dogs – Medical Director of the charity – the Whole Person Health Trust 2000-6

Although I have just passed my 66th birthday I intend to carry on working in a flexible manner until at least my 70th birthday.

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Career Summary

In my early years (after a brief period as a ship’s surgeon) I decided to become a cardio-thoracic surgeon. However severe hay fever made operating difficult so I made the fortunate decision to go into General Practice instead. This was before the days of vocational training and after a short time in a rural practice I realised my lack of knowledge and experience in general practice. I therefore took a post as a general medical registrar in Banbury before starting my own practice from a Portakabin in the grounds of Banbury Hospital.

This practice grew successfully and because of my interest in medical audit and the use of computers in General Practice I was offered the post of senior lecturer in General Practice at Nottingham University Medical School. Apart from being responsible for the undergraduate education in General Practice, I developed a research interest in decision making and computer-aided support in clinical practice.

In 1983 a serious accident took two years out of my career and made me examine my priorities in life. I decided to change to the provision of primary care in the developing world and so the family joined the medical team of Youth With A Mission. This took me to many different parts of the world, although most of my medical and counselling work was in Africa. I have assisted with: vaccination programmes on the islands in Lake Victoria; trained “bare foot doctors” in Ghana, the Philippines and Nigeria; developed AIDS community counseling in Uganda; and started both  counselling and community health-care projects in such places as the Philippines, Poland, Kenya, India, Uganda and Thailand. The project in Uganda is one I have continued to keep a close link with and I visit annually to develop Ugandan health-care workers in Jinja.

I decided to return to General Practice and an academic life in 1993 when I was offered a LIZ (London Implementation Zone) funded post at St. Barts and the Royal London School of Medicine by Professor Leslie Southgate. I was involved in running the LIZ programme as head of Department between the time Professor Southgate left and before Professor Carter came to Barts. I had a special interest in the homeless in east London.  Having worked on the development of the undergraduate teaching programme, when early retirement was offered I was pleased to move side-ways into one of the teaching practices where I became a principal again.

Throughout my career I have been interested in developing a more “wholistic” approach to medicine, and now run a Whole-Person Health Care Clinic within a GP surgery. This seeks to take patients with multiple problems and empower them to understand their illness and take more control of their lives through help with their beliefs and attitudes towards health. I have also, until recently, directed the Hanbury Community Project which attempts to rehabilitate recovering alcoholics and addicts in the city center.

I am married with 4 children and 7 grand-children. I am in good health, an allotment holder at Mudchute Farm, have a clean driving license and no criminal convictions.

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Previous appointments

Professional responsibilities
Some of the professional posts I have held in the past are detailed below.

The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP)
            1973-79           Member, treasurer and research co-ordinator of Faculty Board, Thames Valley
            1978                RCGP representative on the Steering Committee for computerisation of FPCs.
            1983-91           Elected member of the Council of the RCGP
            1983-85           Member of Research Division Executive
            1983-85           Member of the Publications Committee
            1985-90           College representative to the Churches Council for Health and Healing.
            1987-89           Member of Fellowship Committee
            1986-91           Member, Audit and Fellowship by Assessment convener of Midlands Faculty
            1993-96           Member of Faculty Board - NE London

Nottingham University
            1979-85           Elected member, Medical Faculty Board and Faculty Development Committee
            1979-86           University Representative on various Regional sub-committees.

Association of University Teachers of General Practice (now AUDGP)
            1981-86           Member of Heads of Departments group (representing Nottingham University)
            1992 -96          Member of AUDGP, and representing Department on Heads of Department group

British Computer Society
            1981-91           Member of the British Computer Society (MBCS)
            1983-91           Founding member of the Primary Health Care SG (PHCSG) of the BCS
            1984                Secretary to the PHCSG of the BCS

International Society of Quality Assurance in Health Care (ISQA)
            1984-               Founding Board Member and Honorary Member by invitation

World Health Organisation (WHO)
            1983-6             Temporary Advisor to the Advisory Committee in Quality Assurance
            1983                Member of the Working Group on Principles of Quality Assurance in Barcelona
            1986                Member of the Working Group on Training in Quality Assurance in Udine

World Organisation of National Colleges, Academies and Academic Associations of General Practice/Family Physicians  (WONCA)
            1983 -              Individual member
            1983-6             Chairman of the Standing Committee on Research
            1983-6             Member of the Standing Committee on Classification

Counselling Associations
            1987- 90          Member of the BAC (British Association for Counselling)
            1988- 90          Member of the Counselling in Medical Settings Division
            1990-               Founding member of Council of ACC (Association of Christian Counsellors)
            1991- 97          Chairman of Accreditation Committee of ACC
            2003                Honorary Fellow of the ACC

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Publications
Detailed below are all of my publications arranged thematically, which broadly corresponds to a chronological arrangement.

Research funding
Grants successfully applied for are as follows -

Prizes and Fellowships

1975    Upjohn Fellowship (awarded by the Royal College of General Practitioners)
1975    Upjohn Prize  (for the best Upjohn Fellowship report)
1976    Stanning Overseas Traveling Fellowship  (RCGP)
1981    Butterworth Medal (Royal College of General Practitioners, essay on Medical Audit)
1982    British Council Traveling Fellowship, to Medical Schools in Hungary

Academic Experience
During my two periods in Medical Schools, where I was responsible for the under-graduate curriculum in General Practice, and during my time as a GP and Medical Director in Developing Countries, I have gained the following experience.

Under-graduate teaching
Within the Department of General Practice and Primary Care both at Nottingham and also at Barts and the London, I was responsible for the development and delivery of a significant portion of the curriculum to students in all five academic years. Over a period of 25 years I have personally taught on all types of activity, from formal lectures, through small groups to Problem-based learning. I have taught in the classroom, with actors and in the surgery. My last academic appointment was as Senior Lecturer responsible for UG teaching at QMW. 

Curriculum Development
My past responsibility within the Department was to develop the School’s curriculum for increasing exposure of students to health care in the community. This involved cooperating with the curriculum management bodies to develop, evaluate and consolidate new teaching initiatives expanding the community base of the curriculum. I have been responsible for the development of the course content, teaching materials and documentation for the third year and fifth year modules in conjunction with a management team under the direction of Professor Carter.  I have led the team recruiting new teaching practices, and overseen the institution of these new teaching initiatives.  I was leading a team on the accreditation of teaching practices, and participating in the creation of “learning environments” in General Practice through the installation of teaching and IT equipment in our practices.

Post-graduate Training
Over the three years 1993-6, in conjunction with Dr J Murphy, I developed a module on Health Informatics for the MSc course at St. George’s Medical School. Over my 35 years in General Practice I have lectured on numerous occasions to PG courses, although I have not been responsible for organizing one by myself.

Cross-cultural courses
I have personally devised and led six-month counselling courses in Uganda, in which local Ugandans have been trained to completely take over the course after a four year period.  This has given me insight and experience of setting up training courses in cross-cultural situations.  I have devised, led and lectured on short (100 hour) courses on counselling in Poland, France, Uganda and England.  I have taught on courses in Primary Health Care in India, Philippines, East and West Africa, and helped to develop Community Worker training programmes in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana.

Project management
I am the honorary director of the Hanbury Community Project, in Spitalfields, London E1. This is a day centre programme for education and counselling to severely disadvantaged adults in East London, enabling them to find jobs and settled social situations.  We have a team which includes doctors, counsellors and adult educators and has a student body of around 30 full-time “students”, most of whom are ex drug or alcohol addicts. I have recently formed a new charity – The Whole Person Health Trust to build whole-person care within a primary care a setting.

Programme Development and Innovation
My natural inclination is towards innovation and pioneering. Throughout my career I have started new projects, and quickly learned that an innovator must encourage and support others to come alongside to maintain the projects created. At the last count I have started over 20 major companies, practices, organizations, courses or projects – most of which are still progressing successfully.

Administration
For just under two years I took responsibility for the Department of General Practice and Primary Care as acting Head of Department following the departure of Professor Southgate until the arrival of Professor Carter.  I have undertaken a variety of administrative duties within the Department under the direction of Professor Carter.  I have participated in informal workshops seeking to develop the community base within the curriculum.  I have led in the development of SIFT in General practice, representing the Department prior to the arrival of Professor Carter.  I was responsible for the administration of SIFT to General Practitioners.  I led the team for undergraduate education within the Department, and assisted Professor Carter on the Departmental executive.

Computer projects
When a research registrar at St Thomas’s Hospital in 1967 I first started working with computers, and learned to program in Fortran during my research year at Imperial College.  On entering General Practice I worked with the Oxford Community Health Project and worked on developing their coding system (OXMIS). I began to use the Oxford computer to computerise my own practice and began writing articles about the benefits and drawbacks of computers within General Practice.  In the early 1970s I began the first company to install computers in practices (Primary Care Computers), which soon went out of business due to unreliable hardware and inadequate software. In 1978 I was the RCGP representative on the Steering Committee for computerisation of FPCs.  I developed an interest in medical audit and later was a WHO advisor in Quality Assurance.

In 1981 I joined the British Computer Society (BCS) and with Dr Malcolm started the Primary Care specialist group of the BCS, of which I was the first secretary. I was awarded MBCS at that time, but have not kept up my subscriptions. I worked within the Royal College of GPs and in 1985 Norman Stoddard and I edited a book on General Practice computing for the RCGP. I continued in the field of research from my post as senior lecturer and head of GP teaching at Nottingham Medical School, specialising in decision making and information systems until I joined Youth With A Mission in 1985. After a period abroad I came back to academic life at St Bartholomew’s Medical School working on the Good European Electronic Record (GEER) with Professor Lesley Southgate. I also worked with Professor Mike Smith on the problems with the Y2K problems in the late 1990s.

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