5 July 2023

Prof Gudrun Kunst reflects on her roles across King's Health Partners and the benefits of partnership working. 

What is your role within King’s Health Partners?

I am the R&D lead of anaesthesia, perioperative medicine, and pain (APOMP) at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (NHS FT), and I am the South London NIHR Clinical Research Network APOMP lead.

In these roles I have had the opportunity to introduce NIHR-funded national anaesthetic portfolio research studies to King’s College Hospital and other south London hospitals, and to promote teams of local principal investigators leading these high-profile studies.

Anaesthetists play a critical role in the perioperative care of patients and my research during the last 15 years has focused on how to protect patients from having organ injury after major surgery. In 2020, I was promoted to become the first King’s College London Professor of Anaesthesia for 20 years.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

I enjoy my clinical work with patients, and I enjoy conducting clinical research studies in anaesthesia and perioperative medicine with the aim to improve outcomes for patients after their surgery. It is great to have the support from research nurse teams (particularly the ACET team at my hospital) and collaborate with colleagues and experts across the KHP community, but also nationally and internationally. I enjoy teaching anaesthetic trainees clinically and in research, particularly as I often learn from them!

What inspired you to get into this work?

Since 2004 I have worked as a consultant anaesthetist at King’s College Hospital and ever since I started, I have had opportunities to build up an anaesthetic clinical research group in addition to my clinical work. This was inspired by the support and by collaborations across KHP and the world-class School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine & Sciences, by a fantastic King’s R&D team, the brilliant South London NIHR Clinical Research Network, and the National Institute of Academic Anaesthesia & Royal College of Anaesthetists.

What are the benefits of working in partnership?

Research is only possible within partnerships and there are amazing opportunities for collaborations across KHP, some of my main collaborators within the theme of perioperative organ protection are from the KHP community. In addition, my own research has benefitted from R&D and KHP pump priming and innovation funds.

What would be your one career top tip? to staff and students

If you are a trainee or consultant anaesthetist wanting to do cutting edge research, nothing should stop you from doing it, because improving anaesthesia, perioperative care and outcomes after surgery is important. There is great support across KHP networks and above all, collaborative research is fun.