Congratulations to Year Two Student Doctor Jackie Oien on securing an OBB Research Fund to support her study into referral pathways in children’s orthopaedic surgery. See how an injury whilst on the GB fencing team inspired her to help other ‘sporty’ kids.
I was born and raised in London, but I pursued my first undergrad degree in biology, specialising in immunology at the University of Chicago in the US.
As a teen, I was on the national fencing team for Great Britain and, while competing, I had an injury which sparked my interest in orthopaedic surgery - the perfect marriage between biology and sports.
In my first year, I reached out to an orthopaedic surgeon at Alder Hey for a research opportunity which turned into me getting hands-on experience shadowing him whilst simultaneously conducting research. I honestly had not considered paediatric orthopaedic surgery, because I thought it would be too emotionally heavy for me; however, I absolutely loved it. Professor Daniel Perry was a true inspiration and so I held onto every opportunity I could get with him – joining his research group and seeing how massive multimillion pound clinical studies work.
This led me to want to lead my own research – so I applied for the OBB joint research fund. The work I’m doing is a little out of my comfort zone - it is a qualitative study analysing the use of educational videos for normal variants in paediatric orthopaedic surgery.
We have chosen a condition called Sever’s disease as our focus, which is a common cause of heal pain in sporty children.
We hope that we can make a tool bank to empower patients with ‘normal variants’ to self-manage and be reassured by these normal variations of growing up – this will allow us to streamline referrals and reduce the burden on specialist clinics.
The project is in its administrative planning phase - as we need to gain ethical approval for the study to go ahead as I will be conducting semi-structured interviews with family dyads to get the data!
In terms of the application process, it was pretty straightforward with just a lot of paperwork, predominantly submitting an abstract for what the project would be. Once the application was accepted and reviewed, I was then invited to interview. I was most nervous about that, as it was a 15-minute online interview through a presentation – almost short enough to be an elevator pitch!
Following the interview there was a Q&A with the 7-people interview panel – a mix of orthopaedic consultants and professors from across the UK. Luckily a week later I was awarded the first-place prize for the grant! Receiving the news, I called Prof Perry straight away, but he is always one step ahead and had read the email before me!
We are over the moon about the success, and I truly could not have done it without him and owe him a huge part of my achievements. Now that we have the grant, we will be hitting the ground running in 2025 and hopefully by September we will publish the results – be on the lookout!
I think my advice for students interested in (orthopaedic) surgery would be to try and get involved and to be proactive about reaching out to surgeons near you.
There are some fantastic surgeons in every speciality in our NHS hub so take advantage of it as much as you can while you are here. You never know where an opportunity will take you!
As for students interested in research, do your own homework to try and find a project that interests you and again be proactive about it and reach out! I have had previous research positions which has helped, and I am always more than happy to help out anyone interested. There are occasions where things won’t go your way but making the first step is a big one and don’t give up. There’s nothing to lose!
I will add that Prof Perry, and I are thinking about more ways to involve medical students in clinical trials so some applications for that should be coming out later this year. Stay tuned…
This academic year I’m very much looking forward to getting on to placement, leading this research project and getting some publications out. It will be a big challenge to balance everything but I’m very excited for the impact it will have in the future.
To first year students I would say, try and enjoy first year as much as you can. It can be super daunting to move to a new city and almost think you are starting over but that is also what makes it so great! My main message would be – get involved! There are plenty of things to try and there is a lot offered by the Uni; sports, medicine related, student societies etc. It is a great way to meet people and also give yourself a break from studying and have some fun.
Discover more
- Learn more about the OBB Research Fund, offered by Orthopaedic Research UK (ORUK), the British Orthopaedic Trainees Association (BOTA) and the British Orthopaedic Medical Students Association (BOMSA).
- Interested in research? See how the School can support you in conducting your own studies or attending academic conferences on Student Research.
- A budding (orthopaedic) surgeon yourself? Connect with other like-minded students in the Orthopaedics & Trauma Society, Liverpool General Surgical Society, Women in Surgery Society and many more, available via the Guild.