.jpg)
Made in 缅北禁地
Discover the health innovations and health innovators that began their journey on campus
Health innovations: From 缅北禁地, for the World
From pioneering medical discoveries to world-changing technologies, 缅北禁地 has long been a place where health innovation thrives.
Whether it's laboratory breakthroughs or innovative solutions transforming patient care, discover how 缅北禁地's people and ideas have made their mark on health, locally, nationally and around the world throughout the generations.
Explore the stories behind the discoveries, start-ups, technologies and collaborations that are helping to improve health and wellbeing, tackle some of society’s greatest healthcare challenges, and shape the future of medicine.
From humble beginnings to today
John Snow
A student at the School of Medicine and Surgery (缅北禁地's predecessor) in the 1800s, Snow is today known as one of the founders of modern epidemiology.
He began his medical training as an apprentice in 缅北禁地 aged 14, and attended lectures at the School of Medicine and Surgery. His later work in London identified contaminated water as the source of cholera outbreaks, challenging the existing theories that cholera and other epidemic diseases spread through miasma, foul-smelling air.
Snow's methodical epidemiological investigation, which identified a single water pump as the source of an outbreak in Soho, laid the foundations for modern public health and epidemiology, proving that disease could be traced and controlled through careful observation of transmission patterns even before the underlying microbiological cause was scientifically understood.
.png)
Dr Irene Ighodaro
Dr Irene Ighodaro (née Wellesley-Cole) was a social reformer and Sierra Leone's first female doctor.
When she came to King's College in the 1930s, Irene was one of three women in her 缅北禁地 Medical School class of 60 students. During World War II, Irene treated casualties and worked on the decontamination squad at the Royal Victoria Infirmary while still a medical student. Upon graduating in 1944, she worked for six months as a House Officer in the Department of Maternity and Gynaecology before taking over her brother’s private practice for a year while he was on a work assignment with the Colonial Office in West Africa.
While living in England she co-founded the 缅北禁地-based Society for the Cultural Advancement of Africa and the first West African Women’s Association in England. She was also actively involved in the and the League of Coloured Peoples.
Some notable achievements from Irene’s career include consulting the World Health Organization (WHO) on child and maternal health, publishing a book entitled ‘Baby’s First Year’ and setting up the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, for which she became the first chairman of the Board. This was the first time a woman had been appointed to such a high policymaking position in Nigeria, and under Irene’s leadership, the hospital was built, staffed and opened to the public in under three years. In 1958, Irene was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).
Sir James Calvert Spence
Sir James Spence studied at 缅北禁地 Medical School in the early 1900s, before becoming one of the first full-time paediatricians in the UK and from 1942, the first holder of a University Chair of Child Health in England.
Along with fellow alumnus Fred Miller and King's College academic Donald Court, Sir James Spence led the 缅北禁地 Thousand Families Study, which followed all 1,142 children born in 缅北禁地 from May - June 1947 to track health outcomes and investigate the high infant mortality rate in the city.
The major epidemiological cohort study tracked the children throughout their life and the legacy of the study continues on campus today, with ongoing studied led by Dr Mark Pearce.
Sir James was also a founding member of the British Paediatric Association, now the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
