Dr Sunil Bhopal

With training in International Health and Medicine (Leeds; iBSC and MBChB, 2008 and 2010), Paediatrics (MRCPCH; 2014), Clinical Research (MClinRes; 2015), and Epidemiology (PhD; LSHTM, 2019), Sunil is an academic paediatric registrar in the final six months of sub-specialty training.

Immediately prior to commencing this Clinical Fellow post he was NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer (2019-2022) working across Newcastle University’s Population Health Sciences Institute (child public health research), the Great North Children’s Hospital (acute and outpatient paediatrics), and Newcastle City Council’s public health department. Before this, he was Wellcome Trust research training fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2015-2019) embedded in a maternal and child health cluster randomised trial in rural India.

He has (co-)authored >30 peer-reviewed research articles, focussing on health inequalities, child public health/epidemiology, early childhood development - especially in low- and middle-income countries - and Covid-19. He also writes research letters, commentaries, blogs and for lay audiences, including recently in the Lancet, BMJ, Archives of Disease in Childhood, Times Education Supplement and The Conversation (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1229-781X).

Sunil is Trustee for two charities (Foundation Years Information and Research and The Children’s Foundation) and is Governor at Heworth Grange School. He served a three-year term (2017-2020) as chair of the International Child Health Group (Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health).

Away from work, he can be found on the tennis court, or dad-dancing with his two young-children. He was interviewed recently on clinical-academic work, life-influences and raising a family, for the Global Health Lives podcast (https://anchor.fm/globalhealthlives/episodes/Sunil-eq66qa).

Reason for applying for the scheme

Sunil sees the National Medical Director's Clinical Fellow Scheme as a remarkable opportunity to build on the experience and expertise built up over his career so far. He is looking forward to taking advantage of the many training, development and networking opportunities on offer. And especially to learning new skills in policy development, influencing and negotiation by learning up-close from national leaders particularly within the UK Health Security Agency. In addition, the opportunity to learn alongside a cohort of clinical leaders at various career stages, across multiple medical specialties, building new relationships and shared understanding immediately prior to taking up a paediatric consultant post seemed too good an opportunity to miss!