Graham Powell, Specialist Registrar in Neurology and an MRC Clinical Fellow

My research has focused on the assessment of outcomes of treatment with antiepileptic drugs in patients with epilepsy and my MPhil investigated the factors influencing patient reporting of adverse events associated with antiepileptic drugs. My clinical and research interest in Neurology continued through my early postgraduate years and I continued to be involved with research projects during the Foundation Programme.

I was attracted to the Academic Clinical Fellowship programme as it provided a fantastic opportunity to continue my involvement in research. The huge advantages are the dedicated research time available within the programme and the supportive supervision. In addition, I was lucky in that an ACF was available locally with Neurology as the attached clinical speciality.

During the ACF, I was able to continue with my research projects whilst developing applications for clinical fellowship schemes. I applied for NIHR, MRC and Epilepsy Research Clinical Fellowships, a significant and challenging experience! I have been successful in obtaining a MRC Clinical Training Fellowship assessing the accuracy and feasibility of routine data sources in clinical trials, using the Standard and New Antiepileptic Drugs Trial (SANAD II) as a case study. I am looking forward to getting stuck into this project very soon!