Dr Orhan Uzun with his award
The Welsh Fetal Cardiovascular Network won Cardiology Team of the Year for improving detection of heart defects in unborn babies at The British Medical Journal (BMJ) Awards 2016.
The BMJ Awards are the UK’s premier medical awards programme, recognising and celebrating the inspirational work done by doctors and their teams.
This year’s awards attracted more than 300 entries across 15 categories. The glittering ceremony took place at the Westminster Park Plaza Hotel in London.
Dr Orhan Uzun was appointed consultant paediatric cardiologist at the University Hospital of Wales in 2001 and he soon realised that the antenatal detection of congenital heart defects was poor.
Dr Uzun said: “There was a lot of enthusiasm but no leadership and no equity of access” he says.
“People from different parts of the country were not getting the same quality of service. And I wasn’t happy that some people had to travel for two hours to see me – two hours there, two hours back, it just wasn’t fair.”
He set out plans for a nationwide improvement through a network of centres, a complete team approach, and better training for the ultrasonographers.
“This was a steep learning curve for all Sonographers across the centres in South Wales”,
“The training significantly increased confidence in techniques and diagnostic skills aided by local meetings and collaborative working.” said Mrs Nerys Thomas, Superintendent Sonographer at UHW“
Dr Uzun visited every centre regularly, sitting behind sonographers as they worked to show them how to manipulate the probe to get the best view of the fetal heart. Regular audits were held to measure progress.
Dr Uzun said: “Before 2008, we were losing 10% of the babies born with transposition of the great arteries, which was not acceptable. Since 2008 we haven’t lost a single baby.”
By 2010 Antenatal Screening Wales as able to introduce a new screening technique, the outflow tract view, the first of the UK nations to do so.
Detection rates of the principal heart abnormalities have increased dramatically and Wales, once the laggard, has become the leader. But Dr Uzun is not resting on his laurels, arguing that there is still more to be done.
Dr Uzun said: “As a team we, the Welsh Fetal Cardiovascular Network, have always had great enthusiasm to improve standards of care in pregnant women and in their unborn babies.
“We have been passionate about improving the quality of Fetal Cardiology Service that we have been providing. We all strive to make a difference in the lives of our future generations and their parents.
“I am honoured to be the lead of this fantastic network in Wales that is full of enthusiastic and hardworking team of sonographers, radiologist, obstetricians and midwives who work tirelessly to raise the standards of care continuously.
“This is a humbling experience, we feel honoured to receive this award and it is nice to be acknowledged.
“We dedicate this award to our diligent sonographers and our incredibly supportive patients who equally participated in all teaching, training and educational activities.”
Mr Bryan Beattie, Consultant in Fetal Medicine at the University Hospital of Wales said: “This prize endorses the hard work and commitment of those healthcare professionals in the Welsh Fetal Cardiovascular Network to excel in their work and provide the highest possible quality of care for the patients we serve.
“We are all truly proud to working in NHS maternity services in Wales.”
Dr Sue Morris, Consultant Paediatric Radiologist at the University Hospital of Wales said: “The Welsh Fetal Cardiovascular Network was officially founded by Dr Orhan Uzun in June 2014 comprises a team of dedicated and enthusiastic clinicians, sonographers and midwives whose aim is to continue the hard work started by Orhan, aiming to consistently increase the detection rate of fetal heart abnormalities.
“It provides a combination of hands on local teaching sessions and dedicated focussed seminars as well as a bi annual educational meeting with both local speakers and internationally recognised experts in the field.
“In collaboration with Antenatal Screening Wales, new fetal cardiac screening views have been introduced across the country resulting in dramatically improved detection rates of all forms of heart disorders.
“Constant monitoring and audit of results from each centre ensures consistency and allows targeted training and refresher courses where needed thereby ensuring that the excellent results continue to improve.
“The BMJ award for Cardiology Team of the Year is a great achievement and provides fantastic recognition for the continued hard work by all members of the team who ensure dissemination of the best practice and improving outcomes for patients.”
Andrea Thomas, Antenatal Screening Wales (ASW) said: “Antenatal screening Wales has worked together with Dr Orhan Uzun and Tiny Tickers to bring training to all sonographers in Wales that perform Anomaly Scans.
“This work started in 2008 prior to introducing the outflow tracts as a mandatory requirement for completion of the Anomaly scan which was added in 2010 and the pickup rate of cardiac anomalies increased greatly .
“Dr Uzun has continued to provide teaching and support for sonographers and also introduced the WFCN, to which he invited ASW to be part of.
“This initiative has proved that great team work can achieve excellent outcomes and the future is looking bright as we continue to work together to raise the standard of the cardiac views at anomaly scans.
“Together with Tiny Tickers (as expressed by Dr Uzun as a way forward to again increase pick up rates) and to align with England, ASW are currently providing training to all sonographers to enable them to perform the 3 vessel trachea view and the 3 vessel trachea view with colour Doppler.
“It is envisaged that this view will be mandatorily introduced by November 2016 and pickup rates will increase for more complex anomalies than can be seen by the view that are currently being taken.”
“I’d like to say ‘Thank you’ to the team for all your help and guidance and we’re looking forward to our future work together.”
Rachel Burton, Head of Operations and Delivery for the Children and Women’s Clinical Board said: ”This is fantastic news; we are so proud of the work that the Fetal Cardiology Team deliver and we are delighted that the teams have been recognised in this way for the positive impact their service has on so many families.”
BMJ judges’ comments were that the winning cardiology team had: “Implemented an impressive program of service transformation accompanied by comprehensive data collection and a well designed evaluation of the project, which has clear potential for wider uptake to improve patient outcomes.”
