| London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine | |
|---|---|
| Established | 1899 - London School of Tropical Medicine 1924 - London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine established by Royal Charter |
| Type | Public |
| Chancellor | HRH The Princess Royal (University of London) |
| Director | Professor Peter Piot |
| Admin. staff | 766 (full-time equivalent) |
| Students | 2,805 total (1,922 distance learning) |
| Location | Bloomsbury, London, United Kingdom |
| Campus | Urban |
| Affiliations | University of London |
| Website | www.lshtm.ac.uk |
The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (informally the LSHTM or the London School) is a constituent college of the federal University of London specialised in public health and tropical medicine. Founded by Sir Patrick Manson in 1899, the LSHTM is a research-led postgraduate centre of excellence in public health, international health and tropical medicine. The LSHTM's mission is to contribute to the improvement of health worldwide through the pursuit of excellence in research, postgraduate teaching and advanced training in national and international public health and tropical medicine, and through informing policy and practice in these areas.
The LSHTM had a total income of £101.7 million in 2009/10, of which £62.5 million was from research grants and contracts.[1]
The School was founded in 1899 by Sir Patrick Manson as the London School of Tropical Medicine and located at the Albert Dock Seamen's Hospital in the London Docklands.[2] Just prior to this teaching in tropical medicine had been commenced in 1899 at the Extramural School at Edinburgh and even earlier at London's Livingstone College founded in 1893 by Charles F. Harford-Battersby (1865–1925). Before giving lectures at St. George's Hospital, London, in 1895, Livingstone College afforded Manson his first opportunity to teach courses in tropical medicine.[3] Manson's early career was as a physician in the Far East where he deduced the correct etiology of filariasis, a parasitic vector based disease, transmitted through the bite of a mosquito. On his return to London, he was appointed Medical Advisor to the Colonial Office. He strongly believed that doctors should be trained in tropical medicine to treat British colonial administrators and others working throughout Britain's tropical empire. He also encouraged and mentored Ronald Ross during this period to uncover the correct etiology of malaria, which Ross subsequently discovered in 1898, winning the Nobel Prize for his efforts. The original School was established as part of the Seamen's Hospital Society.
In 1920 the School moved, with the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, to Endsleigh Gardens in central London, taking over a former hotel which had been used as a hospital for officers during the First World War.[4] In 1921 the Athlone Committee recommended the creation of an institute of state medicine, which built on a proposal by the Rockefeller Foundation to develop a London-based institution that would lead the world in the promotion of public health and tropical medicine. This enlarged School, now named the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine was granted its Royal Charter in 1924.
A competition to design a new School building to be sited along Gower Street in Bloomsbury was held involving five architects, all experienced in laboratory design and construction. This was won in 1925 by Morley Horder and Verner Rees who located the main entrance in Keppel Street. This building was opened in 1929 by HRH the Prince of Wales. The purchase of the site and the cost of a new building was made possible through a gift of $2m from the Rockefeller Foundation.
The School is part of the University of London and is the University's major resource for postgraduate teaching and research in public health and tropical medicine. On successful completion of their studies, students gain a University of London degree.
The Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health aims to be a methodological centre of excellence for research in national and global health issues, to expand the limits of epidemiological thinking & multi-disciplinary research to further understanding of health issues in their full complexity, to develop, refine and disseminate tools & methods for research design, data collection, analysis and evaluation, and to conduct rigorous research in national and global health.
The Faculty has expertise in:
Other goals of the Faculty are; To inform policy concerning major public health issues, at local, national and global level. To contribute to the improvement of public health through effective teaching. To elucidate the aetiological pathways and disease mechanisms of major health problems. To map trends over time, and the public health consequences of a changing world. To describe epidemiological differences between and within countries, and to contribute to the reduction of inequalities and inequity in health. To contribute to better understanding of national and global health issues. To evaluate and improve interventions: To generate and evaluate strategies which will reduce the excess burden of disease, suffered by the poor and the vulnerable. To evaluate new treatments, medical interventions, screening, patient information needs and counselling services. To assess hazards and threats to health in order to inform policy, in response to widespread public concern.
The Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases (ITD) was formed in August 1997 and encompasses all of the laboratory-based research in the School as well as that on the clinical and epidemiological aspects of infectious and tropical diseases. It is currently headed by Simon Croft, who is Professor of Parasitology. The Faculty is organised into four large research departments. The range of disciplines represented in the aculty is very broad and inter-disciplinary research is a feature of much of our activity. The spectrum of diseases studied is wide and there are major research groups working on topics which include:
There is close interaction between scientists in different research teams. The Faculty has strong overseas links which provide a basis for field studies and international collaborations in developed and developing countries. Funding for research in the Faculty comes from around 45 funding organizations and agencies. Major funders of research include the Department for International Development, Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, BBSRC, GlaxoSmithKline and the Commission of European Communities.
The Faculty of Public Health and Policy aims to improve global health through research, teaching and the provision of advice in the areas of health policy, health systems and services, and individual, social and environmental influences on health. Interests and activities embrace the health needs of people living in countries at all levels of development. The School has the largest numbers of research active staff in the areas of epidemiology, public health and health services research in the UK.[5] The Faculty of Public Health and Policy has over 220 members of staff, including epidemiologists, public health physicians, economists, policy analysts, anthropologists, sociologists, historians, psychologists, statisticians and mathematicians. The Faculty's research programmes, with an annual spend of over £7m, focus on public health problems of importance both globally and in the UK, and build on an extensive network of collaborations.[6]
The research programmes exploit multidisciplinary and multi-method approaches, generate new knowledge for specific contexts and test transferability to different settings, and engage with policymakers and providers of health care to ensure research is relevant and translated into practice. The Faculty is renowned for its influential research in diverse areas concerned with global health such as:
The Faculty hosts School Centres in the areas of History in Public Health[7], Research on Drugs and Health Behaviours, Spatial Analysis in Public Health, Global Change and Health, Health of Societies in Transition (ECOHOST), and Gender Violence and Health. In addition, staff participate in Centres based in other departments, notably the Malaria Centre and the Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Disease.
In keeping with its focus on the interface between scientific research, policy and practice, faculty staff are engaged in a very wide range of policy-influencing roles, including membership of key government advisory groups, leadership of professional bodies, membership of research funding bodies, and provision of expert advice to global health institutions.
All three Faculties offer a wide range of MSc courses and Research Degrees.
LSHTM offers a range of taught Masters degrees as well as research degrees leading to the University of London degree of DrPH, MPhil and PhD.
The LSHTM won the 2009 Gates Award for Global Health established by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and will receive $ 1 million in prize money. The award recognises organizations that have made an outstanding contribution to improving global health.
More recently, a team of researchers led by Professor Richard Hayes at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, have been awarded $37 million to test an innovative combination of strategies to prevent HIV in African countries.
The Donald Reid Medal is awarded triennially by the LSHTM in recognition of distinguished contributions to epidemiology.[8]
In 2008, the UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) confirmed the School as a world leading centre for research. The School has been ranked one of the top three research institutions in the country in the Times Higher Education Table of Excellence, which is based on the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. The results indicate that in both Epidemiology and Public Health and Health Services Research the School has the largest concentration of world leading research in the UK. In Epidemiology and Public Health, 35% of the School's research activity was assessed as 4 (world leading), with a further 35% rated as 3 (internationally excellent). This result is particularly impressive in light of the fact that the School entered by far the highest number of staff of any UK institution (135.37), more than double the number entered by any other institution. In Health Services Research, 30% of its research activity received a 4* rating, and a further 35% was rated as 3. In Infection and Immunology, 80% of research activity was rated 3 or 4.[9][10] There are no current relevant world rankings of institutions of public health (including the Times Higher Education University Rankings), however, LSHTM remains one of the most prestigious postgraduate institutions in public health globally.
The School's alumni work in more than 160 countries. Notable alumni include:
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