Dr Shiva Tripathi has received the title of Honorary Clinical Professor within the Lancashire Applied Health Research Collaboration Hub (LARCH) at The University of Central Lancashire.
This comes hard on the heels of a similar appointment for Dr Alison Birtle and the 2020 NHS Healthcare Science Lifetime Achievement award to Dr Martin Myers.
All three are specialists at The Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Dr Tripathi started as a consultant in Anaesthesia and Pain Medicine at the Trust on the 1st of Nov 2007.
“My whole life has centred on pain” says Shiva as we meet in his department at Royal Preston Hospital.
An unassuming yet remarkably focussed man, he projects an aura of calm and willingness to impart knowledge to others.
You can see why in 2015, he was awarded the, “student-selected Best Consultant Teacher award” in the Manchester Medical School.
“I am told I have excellent teaching skills” admits the Doctor quietly, whilst looking somewhat embarrased by the admission.
Dr Tripathi took up the role of Clinical Director for pain management in April 2016, remaining in the role until March 2021.
He was made a Consultant Research Fellow at the LTHTR in 2017.
“The Trust has been very kind to me over the years and together we have gone on a journey together”
Has life been a total pain I wonder aloud, hoping for another insight into Shiva and his work?
He smiles as he ponders his reply
“I have incredible colleagues here at the Trust and the journey so far has been about pain but certainly not mine.
“Pain is such a fascinating subject and every case is different you know”, he says from his office at the Royal Preston Hospital.
“The only one constant is that you must keep the patient at the centre of everything you do.
Research is so very important as we develop new skills and new methods in controlling both the cause and the symptoms”
In January 2020, Dr Tripathi took up the role of Specialty Research Group (SRG) Lead – Clinical Research Network (CRN) North West Coast (NWC) – Anaesthesia, peri-operative medicine and pain management.
Recently, in October 2020, Dr Tripathi was elected to the Board of the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Royal College of Anaesthetists
“The University of Central Lancashire has an incredible infrastructure you know” says Shiva as he hurries about his work.
“The anaesthetics department works as a unified multidisciplinary team to provide world-class treatment and personalised care for every patient, working together with our surgical, medical and obstetric colleagues to provide cutting edge care, delivered with compassion.
That is the way it should be” says Shiva, with conviction.
“The patient always comes first”.
Shiva is now Chief Investigator of an International multicenter First In Human study in Low Back Pain being conducted in the UK, Belgium, Spain, France and New Zealand.
“It’s good to stay the person I am” says the Doctor, who in this research study, has the overall primary responsibilty for the safe conduct of the trial.
Dr Tripathi and the LCFR team recruited the first patient, globally, for his FIH back pain study in October 2021, following an unprecedented delay due to the on-going COVID 19 pandemic.
The LCRF team recruited the second global patient for this study in April 2021.
“We all have a responsibility to help train the next generation of Medical staff” says the Doctor.
“Anything I can do to help the medical school in delivering teaching programmes and in embedding good clinical medical practice is a priviledge”
“Do you suffer from back pain” says Shiva inquisitively, “we need more recruits for the study you know”
That is the cue for me to bid me farewell.
