Vascular Anaesthesia Society of Great Britain and Ireland (VASGBI)

Impact Statement

Dr Rajiv Malhotra, VASGBI Research & Audit Committee Chair

VASGBI aims to improve patient care through supporting collaborative research and is a proud funding partner of the NIAA. We are fully engaged with the NIAA and have successfully nominated colleagues for the RCoA Macintosh Professorship.

Over the last decade, VASGBI has invested nearly £130,000 in research grants. Being part of the NIAA Research Council has ensured that the submission and review processes are centralised and standardised. The eligible grants undergo external peer-review from a diverse panel of experts, with reviewer comments being critical to the awards process. We are supportive of the equality, diversity and inclusion data obtained by the NIAA.

The ability to work collaboratively with other relevant societies, such as the Association for Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia & Critical Care, has resulted in funding for larger grant applications to be approved.

VASGBI also offers trainee research and audit development grants to support projects in the field of vascular anaesthesia undertaken by anaesthetic trainees. This scheme was launched in 2015 and has been awarded NIHR Portfolio status. To date, VASGBI has invested nearly £40,000 in grants to trainees to support the development of the next generation of clinical researchers.

To further encourage high quality research and audit, VASGBI awards both free paper and poster prizes at the annual VASGBI conference. Award winning papers are published in the Journal of Vascular Societies Great Britain and Ireland.

VASGBI looks forward to working with the NIAA in the future to promote research in vascular anaesthesia and will continue to fund high quality research relevant to our research priorities.