International prize for Whiteley Clinic research student in Milan

George Badham, the Whiteley Clinic Venous Research Fellow summer 2010, won the prize for third place at the International Vascular and Endovascular Course (IVEC) and the European Congress of the International Society of Vascular Surgery (ISVS) in Milan with his presentation about treating varicose veins using the keyhole surgery technique RFiTT.



George, who is a third-year medical student at Cardiff University, was the only medical student presenting, with all of the other presenters in the prize sessions being qualified doctors specialising in vascular surgery. Despite being over a decade younger than the other presenters shortlisted for the prize, the quality of Georges research and his excellent presentation to an international audience of vascular experts, secured him enough votes to win third place.





The Whiteley Clinic has a strong research tradition and offers research projects to students who wish to get to medical school, medical students and also junior doctors. Each year, one or two applicants are accepted and are given one or more projects to complete, depending on the time they have available and also their own motivation.

Despite careful supervision, not all research fellows manage to get their research completed. It takes considerable dedication to see a research project through to completion and then on to presentation and publication.





This summer, two research fellows were appointed, both of whom are exceptionally hard workers and have completed their projects.

George Badham's research was a study using a benchtop model to simulate keyhole treatment of varicose veins using the RFiTT technique. He showed that the technique that had been originally recommended by surgeons elsewhere in this country and Europe had inadequate affect, making the technique appear less successful than it could be.





With his supervisor, Mark Whiteley, they developed and prove that changing the power settings and the technique of applying the power to the vein resulted in optimal conditions likely to destroy any vein treated this way.

This project will be submitted for presentation in the UK to inform UK surgeons how best to use this technique, and hopefully this presentation will be in the first half of 2011, depending on which meeting it is presented at.

The results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal in the near future.


Mark Whiteley was also an invited lecturer at the same meeting, speaking on the current thoughts on Foam Sclerotherapy in the treatment of varicose veins.