Janusz Jankowski

Professor Janusz Jankowski MBChB, MSc, MD, PhD, FRCP, AGAF, FACG, SFHEA and PCME is a doctor, academic administrator, educationalist and scientist of Scottish Polish origin. He was formerly an Associate Dean for Research and the Sir James Black Professor. He has held several opinion-forming positions including chairmanship of National Academic, Clinical, Education and Research Committees.^[1]

Education and Qualifications

Janusz Jankowski was state educated at Hillhead High School and was the first pupil for many years to gain a place at medical school, especially at 17 years of age. He graduated from the University of Glasgow with a Bachelorette in Medicine and Surgery (1983).^[1] He undertook research at the University of Dundee and was awarded a Doctorate of Medicine in Molecular Medicine (1996) and subsequently completed a Doctorate of Philosophy in Molecular Genetics at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Imperial College at the University of London (1996).^[1] He has trained at the University of Oxford also gaining a Masters of Science in Epidemiology and Clinical Trials (2009).^[1] He has been awarded Fellowships by UK and American Medical Colleges; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians London (2000), Fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology USA (2007) and American Gastroenterology Association Fellow (2012).^[1]

Jankowski has several educational qualifications including a Post Graduate Certificate in Medical Education PGCE from the University of Cambridge (2013) and a Senior Fellowship from the Higher Education Academy (2014).

He is certified in many aspects of senior management including Gerard Egan mentoring and John Adair actioned-centred functional leadership.^[1]

Career and Academic Management

He has held Professorships (Prof) at the University of Birmingham, University of Leicester and Queen Mary University of London. He has been a Visiting Professor and then the Sir James Black Senior Fellow at the University of Oxford. Following this he has been in senior management as the Associate Dean for Research at the Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, England, UK and then the Associate Dean for Research and Special Projects in Health and Life Sciences at Coventry University, England, UK. He currently holds an Honorary Professorship at the University of Warwick. Over 20 years he has helped raise £100m+ in funds.^[2]

In these posts he had many strategic roles in wide aspects of research focus, governance, education, student satisfaction, recruitment, planning, leadership, mentoring and enterprise. Jankowski is proven in change management (including culture, infrastructure development, sustainability and research services). His scientific team and alliance building has allowed transformational developments in academia.^[1] This includes the ChOPIN/EAGLE Consortia with over 100 Worldwide centres.^[3]

Jankowski had a pivotal senior management contribution to the Research Excellence Framework 2014 as the Clinical Medicine (UoA1) Lead for the Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry (PUPSMD). Crucially PUPSMD was ranked in 1st place out of 31 UK Universities for the Grade Point Average Score (GPA) of the Clinical Medicine Research Outputs (3.33 vs 3.21 for the nearest competitor) ^[4] This advantage was mainly in the 4* World Class range, based upon the quality of the publications and the number of citations. As a whole PUPSMD ranked in joint 13th place, out of 31 as calculated from the Overall Profile GPA, for wider contributions including Environment, Research Impact as well as Outputs.^[5] These results were remarkable given the comparative size of the local research environment and the short time since start up of PUPSMD for its impacts to be achieved. Jankowski, as a member of the Executive Pan-University REF Panel, also oversaw the increase in the average GPA in other subjects, from 2.18 to 2.74, resulting in a 10% rise in institutional ranking.

Clinician and Teacher

Prof Jankowski is an expert in reflux esophagitis, Barrett's esophagus, acute medicine and clinical trials as well as more generally in cancer prevention and health promotion. As a clinician Professor Jankowski has helped create centres of excellence in medicine and gastroenterology especially the Digestive Disease Centre, University Hospitals of Leicester 2002-2012. He set up Scotlands first endoscopic surveillance service for Barrett's esophagus (ESBE) between 1988-1991 at Ninewells Hospital of Dundee as well as Londons first ESBE between 1991-1994 at Guy's Hospital both of which still run to this date.

In the national arena Jankowski has supported the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in producing authoritative guidelines and technology reviews in many key medical areas. Recently he has published independent guidance for the National Health Service (NHS) and other international organisations using the largest evidence based Delphi systematic review platforms.^[6]

Jankowski has been an editor of several innovative and authoritative text books including those in gastroenterology and gastrointestinal cancer.^[7]

Research and Publications

Prof Jankowski's group have undertaken several important innovative studies including the isolation of label retaining cells (putative stem cells) in the oesophagus ^[8] identification of the genomic factors associated with the premalignant condition Barrett's oesophagus.^[9] They are currently studying the use of aspirin in a large novel randomized clinical trial to prevent cancer.^[10] This work has been recently ranked 4* world class by the REF 2014 panel.

Jankowski is a highly cited clinical academic with a h-index of over 50.^[11] He has over 200 publications of which 150 are peer reviewed papers including those in high impact scientific journals such as Gastroenterology, The Lancet, Lancet Oncology, Nature, Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, New England Journal of Medicine and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA.^[12]

Awards and Honours

Prof Jankowski has given over 200 invited or prize lectures in 25 countries including Cancer Prevention at the National Cancer Institute, USA.

Jankowski has been awarded several Honorary Professorships in the last 20 years including at Queen Mary, University of London and the University of Oxford.

Jankowski has been awarded several Prizes most notably NHS Clinical Excellence Awards, the Sir Francis Avery Jones Award (British Society of Gastroenterology), the James Black Senior Fellowship (University of Oxford) and the Sir James Black Professorship (Plymouth University).^[1]

Pro Bono Roles and Directorships

Prof Jankowski has had many community roles on a pro bono basis for example as a sports medicine doctor (including rugby and Tae Kwon Do), school governor, parish councillor and charity trustee. In this latter case he was an active Executive Director of Fight Oesophageal Reflux Together national support group for patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (www.fortcharity.org.uk).^[13]

Jankowski has been chairman of several national committee boards including the Acute and Chronic Diseases Panel of NICE, the GI Cancer Prevention Committee of the National Cancer Research Network and the Education Committee of the British Society of Gastroenterology.^[1]

Jankowski has been a specialist Non Executive Consultant to NHS Trusts, Clinical Commissioning Groups and Industry.

References