Academic origins
My first degree was in medicine. I graduated from Cambridge in 2001, having completed my undergraduate medicine degrees, my Ph.D. in dementia, and my undergraduate degree in neurosciences in 1996. I obtained the second highest-first, and I have always remained fascinated in understanding the neurosciences from the cellular to the systems level. I spent most of my days here as the Medical and Veterinary Sciences Tripos Part I included lectures and practicals six-days a week, at the infamous Downing Site, pictured here.
As part of my Ph.D., I produced one of the world’s seminal papers on the diagnosis of behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia. This paper has stood the test of time, and has been, I feel, a major influence on subsequent research. It provides a coherent explanation as to why patients with behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia can present with profound changes in personality and behaviour, perform normally on traditional tests of frontal lobe function, and have normal structural imaging scans in the early stages.
Medical education and dementia
I am extremely passionate about medical education and my research interest which is dementia. I have produced, so far, two textbooks in clinical medicine, and around 20 first-author international papers on dementia and Parkinson’s disease. I passed all my examinations for the Royal College of Physicians (UK) in March 2005. In 2004, I passed at my first attempt the Advanced Life Support examination in running a cardiac arrest. This course was run by the Resuscitation Council. Shortly after passing the exam, I ran three cardiac arrest teams, and my patients survived in all of them and were taken to ITU (they all were in cardiac asystole.)
Personal challenges
I myself have had a cardiac arrest. This happened in June 2007, when I was intubated as an emergency procedure following an epileptic seizure. The underlying diagnosis was acute meningitis, although I did battle against severe alcoholism between 2003-2007. Following this cardiac arrest, I was in a coma on the Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Free NHS Hampstead, to which I owe my life, for six weeks, but I was then transferred for neurorehabilitation to the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, where in fact I had been a junior doctor. I have been disabled since, although I have made a remarkable recovery in that, whilst I am disabled, I am now ambulant, whereas in the early stages I couldn’t walk and I was in a wheelchair. I have double vision for which I am under Moorfield’s NHS Trust, which is a superb hospital, and I am thankfully intellectually intact. The terrible cloud has had a glistening silver lining in that I have been successfully in recovery since June 2007. With 40 months ‘under my belt’, I feel totally confident in spreading my recovery to other sufferers, including professionals in medicine, and I attend outpatient therapy in a private hospital in London.
Future directions
At the moment, my efforts are very much directed to my company, a company that specializes in e-learning for postgraduate law (GDL) and medical exams (MRCP(UK)). My goal is simply to stay healthy and happy. I also do literature-based research to improve the quality-of-life for patients with dementia.
In other academic areas, I feel very fulfilled. I completed my Graduate Diploma in Law in September 2008. Finally, I became one of the first handful of graduates from BPP Law School with a Bachelor of Laws, with my dissertation in the law and ethics of human organ donation. Recently, I have studied for and passed successfully the examinations in PRINCE2 complex project management (October 2009). I am also about to complete my part-time Master in Law in International Commercial Law from the College of Law of England and Wales. Representing my business interests (I am an associate of the Institute of Directors), I am about to commence a two-year full-time MBA in London from January 2011.
My cultural world
I think that essential to enjoying life is to have a decent work-life balance. I love the arts, especially art galleries. I have particularly loved the Gauguin recently at the Tate Modern, and I thought that Picasso at the Gagosian was wonderful. I am a member of Love Art London, which for me is a great way for me to experience certain works of art for real, for the very first time.
I would love new members for my interactive discussion forum. We regularly discuss political issues there. It currently has a solid ‘bank’ of 30 highly-intelligent members. Please tell others about it if you think they’d enjoy the ‘banter’, whatever political persuasion they’re from. The only stipulation is that contributors must to be able to form a coherent, meaningful argument, which is not based on gossip or insults.
The blog ‘drshibleyrahman.com’ is here.
