The pioneering work of one of Wales’ leading medics whose work helped tackle lung disease in the South Wales Valleys and became a blueprint for modern-day medicine will be honoured as Cardiff University officially opens its new flagship health education centre (Friday 18th November).
Cardiff University’s new state-of-the-art centre, the Cochrane Building is named after Professor Archie Cochrane who carried out much of his groundbreaking research in the South Wales Valleys.
The Rhondda Fach Scheme, which he pioneered and launched in 1950, tested the hypothesis that progressive massive fibrosis (PMF) derived from interaction between pneumoconiosis and tuberculosis.
The Rhondda Fach Scheme involved x-raying everyone over the age of 15 in one of the selected valleys. The response rate was never less than 90% and the accuracy of the measurements was comparable to that achieved in laboratory research.
The Scheme helped kick-start Archie’s lifelong scientific interest in making full use of representative population samples – it also helped to establish epidemiology as a quantitative science.
The new £16M Cochrane Building offers Cardiff University’s students in medicine, nursing, midwifery and allied healthcare studies the latest and high-tech facilities for teaching and learning.
The dedicated facilities include a twin storey inter-professional library, modern clinical skills and high-tech simulation laboratories, postgraduate teaching areas, seminar space, wireless access to on-line services and student support services.
The building also supports the delivery of a twenty-first century medical undergraduate curriculum by providing appropriately sized and located seminar rooms to support small group teaching, a clinical simulation suite set up exactly like an NHS ward, and state-of-the-art clinical skills facilities.
It houses a health related library with a state-of-the-art library and computing facilities which will focus teaching and learning at one central location.
University Vice-Chancellor, Dr David Grant said: “Cardiff University is the main provider of medical and healthcare training in Wales, with more than 750 healthcare professionals graduating from the University every year.
“The Cochrane Building represents a major investment in providing excellent teaching facilities for the doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals of the future.
“We believe it is entirely fitting that this new building bears the name of Professor Cochrane. Professor Cochrane’s contribution to medicine, the South Wales valleys and to this University is huge.
“We hope by naming this new building we will go some way to honour and recognise his name and help inspire the next generation of medical pioneers.”
The building will be officially opened by Professor Iain Chalmers who founded the Cochrane Collection – an international network of more than 30,000 dedicated people from over 100 countries.
Sir Iain Chalmers said: “This building is named after one of the world’s true medical greats. Archie Cochrane challenged medical orthodoxy to produce evidence to support its practices.
“He changed fundamentally our approach to teaching and understanding medicine. If Archie was still with us today, he’d be clear: it’s not the bricks and mortar that matters most, it’s the people who work and study within them.
“For Archie, the measure of this building’s success would be how the teaching, learning and research it fosters will respect the need for evidence. It’s a challenge that I feel sure coming generations of Cardiff students will accept.
“His contributions to medical research and teaching in Cardiff and South Wales, and to the mining valleys in particular, deserves to be recognised. This building finally offers Archie and his pioneering work the local recognition it deserves.”
