"I think the fact you’re embedded in a hospital, right amongst that team from day one, means you emerge with a particular appreciation for teamwork."
St George’s alumnus, Dr Chris Roche, studied English Literature to Master’s Level before joining the Graduate Entry Medicine programme (GEP). While applying for a place, he gained experience both at a telecoms software company and as an auxiliary nurse. Dr Roche graduated from St George’s in 2014 and is now a Second Year Cardiothoracic Surgery trainee, who is currently taking formal time out of the programme to complete a PhD in cardiac bioengineering in Sydney. As part of his research, he recently invented a minimally invasive surgical instrument which was prototyped and tested in a proof-of-concept study. You can read more about this world-first instrument here. Here, he shares his reflections on his time on the Graduate Entry Medicine programme and how it shaped his career.
What are you working on at the moment as part of your PhD?
The aim of my research is to regenerate dead heart muscle after a heart attack. You can see some of the publications here and view the accepted manuscript here. I suppose it’s a bit sad that I now define myself by scientific publications - some might call this a classic GEP student trait!
As part of your research, you and your team invented a minimally invasive surgical instrument for patients who have suffered a heart attack. This sounds a hugely exciting development. Could you tell us more about this?
The invention was a massive multidisciplinary team effort which was a sort of ‘spin off’ of my PhD which I probably got just as invested in as the core PhD itself. The instrument is a minimally invasive robotic device to transplant patches to the heart surface to regenerate heart muscle. The publication to go with it is currently in press. Even though it’s at the very early stages, it’s the first time anyone has done anything like this and it was a very exciting project to get off the ground. To do stuff like this you need a team and lots of help.
Watch a pre-recorded seminar in which Dr Roche presents 'Novel robotic designs for minimally invasive cardiac surgery' for the Institute of Bone and Joint Research
View a five-minute rapid version of the seminar here
You recently set up a mentoring website and YouTube channel called Underdog Mentoring. Who does this support and what inspired you to set this up?
"I’ve had a lot of help from mentors and supervisors over the years, so I set up the website with the idea to freely give underprivileged students the assistance and mentoring I was lucky enough to receive over the years."
It’s all free and designed to empower mentees and give them confidence. You can see one of the mentees interviewing a business leader here.
How did the Graduate Entry Medicine programme help prepare you for your current role?
The main thing the GEP programme did for me was probably to make me feel well-trained for any setting and ready for wherever I ended up. Like all junior doctors, I ended up doing lots of different roles, including a GP placement, paediatrics, surgical jobs, jobs in good teams (and in more dysfunctional ones!) I also ended up carrying out a lot of non-clinical activities to do with teaching and research.
You don’t walk into such different jobs and already know what to do, so what St George’s did was help create me as a humble but versatile graduate, ready to learn and adapt.
There was a lot of emphasis on teamwork at St George’s and we even used to joke about it, how the right answer always started with listing off members of the ‘multidisciplinary team’ – but now I see why and I think the fact you’re embedded in a hospital, right amongst that team from day one, means you emerge with a particular appreciation for teamwork rather than thinking you’re some sort of doctoring hero!
What was the best thing about studying Graduate Entry Medicine?
I loved the fact that it was in one big hospital, so you were studying amongst the work. This made it really easy to go and find people and opportunities came out of that. It also meant there was this ‘in-house’ feeling, it made you feel like there was a community or some belonging, even though you were in a massive hospital in a massive city. I also loved the variety in the course, it wasn’t just lectures and there was loads of diversity in the cohort. I really liked the placements being around South-West London and these were really varied, too. It was hard work and it wasn’t as though every year was a dream, but I always felt 100% sure I was where I belonged.
What advice would you give to someone considering studying Graduate Entry Medicine?
I would say to initially consider the following: whether you find medical knowledge itself particularly interesting (so, do you actually want to learn the stuff that’s in the textbooks?) and whether you find people interesting and want to work with them.
For me, I found both really engaging and I used to always think it was great to study medicine compared to other subjects out there. I think enjoying studying is important, because it doesn’t stop once you graduate - you have to do that for your whole career.
A few years down the line, you could theoretically choose a speciality which doesn’t involve working with people as much but you can’t escape the acquisition of knowledge. Then, I would say choose your moment to start carefully, but once you start, throw yourself completely into it.
Do you have any advice or a message for current students of the Graduate Entry Medicine programme at St George’s?
This is the most important question and I would say three things to most GEPs. Firstly, I’d say the same thing the people on the five-year (non-graduate entry) course used to say to me: “Chill out!”.
Secondly, being a research-oriented person, I would also recommend you start doing a bit of research on the side. Start doing that early, because it will spiral out of control and take years. Finally, put your relationships, family and friends first because Medicine will try to interfere with these and you must not let it!