Dr Ben Porter: Early career research mentorship

Dr Ben Porter is an infectious diseases registrar based in the UK. He first connected with Worldwide Radiology through a shared interest in point of care ultrasound (POCUS) in low resource settings. Working together with Liz and her research colleague Dr Kagima in Kenya, he was awarded an early career researcher grant from the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene to perform a POCUS study project together.

This experience played a key role in his successful application for a Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Clinical PhD Fellowship.

In this blog, Ben shares his journey into global health research and reflects on how his collaboration with Worldwide Radiology supported his development.

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I am an infectious diseases registrar based in the UK and I was recently fortunate enough to receive a Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Clinical PhD Fellowship to undertake tuberculosis vaccine research in Blantyre, Malawi. The early career research experience I gained under the supervision of Liz and Worldwide Radiology has been a key stepping stone to me obtaining PhD funding.

I first connected with Worldwide Radiology as an aspiring infectious diseases doctor with overseas experience in South Africa and South Sudan and an interest in the use of point-of-care ultrasound in resource-limited settings.

I wanted to gain opportunities in global health research but had little prior research experience.

I heard about the work of Worldwide Radiology and connected with Liz who was incredibly encouraging from our first meeting. Liz connected me with another POCUS enthusiast: Dr Jacqueline Kagima – an intensivist/respiratory physician at Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi.

Together we designed a diagnostic accuracy study assessing the use of a subxiphoid cardiac ultrasound protocol in diagnosing heart failure aetiology in low-resource African settings. With their supervision, I was successful in obtaining an early career researcher grant from the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene which funded the project.

Data collection and analysis are now complete and write-up is underway. Leading on the project with close support from Liz and connecting with Worldwide Radiology’s network of fellow POCUS-enthusiasts working across the African region was a tremendous experience!

During the COVID-19 pandemic I developed an interest in vaccine development and started to read about and seek out opportunities in tuberculosis vaccine research.

It was striking that highly effective COVID-19 vaccines had been developed so quickly when, for TB, we still rely on BCG - a 100-year-old vaccine - that has zero protective effect against pulmonary disease in adults living in high burden equatorial settings.

Although this was a different research field to our POCUS project, the experience I had gained under Liz’s supervision enabled me to develop a project idea with more confidence.

For my PhD, I am very excited to explore why BCG is less effective in Malawi than the UK by using a BCG controlled human infection model to study the influence of non-tuberculous mycobacteria sensitisation on mycobacterial immunity.

The POCUS project experience helped a huge amount with the Wellcome fellowship application process: I was able to write a more structured and convincing proposal and better anticipate potential ethical challenges that could arise.

During the interview, I was able to discuss the challenges of leading a study across different time zones and the difficulties of managing a project with participants from seven different countries. Having worked under Liz’s supervision, I now feel much better equipped for he challenges that may arise throughout the PhD process and feel excited to embark on the next stages of my research career.

Although the focus of my PhD research will be in a different area, the use of POCUS in low-resource settings is ever-expanding and will continue to be a topic that fascinates me.

As a member of the Worldwide Radiology community, I look forward to learning about and hopefully having more opportunities to contribute to their important work in the future!