Hayley Dunlop - Global Scholar

Hayley Dunlop spoke about the two projects that she has been working on in Edinburgh prior to returning to the USA to take up a place at medical school in Ohio.

The first was “Covid 19 and Tobacco Project”. This was designed to find out what if anything was known about the relationship between tobacco consumption and the incidence and severity of Covid 19 in LMICs (lower and middle income countries) and Hayley looked at Ethiopia, Ghana and Uganda. It became clear that the risks were not well known in these countries. In fact the tobacco industry had donated money to Uganda to be used in the fight against Covid.

The second project was the basis of her dissertation and was about breast cancer recurrence and survival in Scotland and aimed to explore whether there were different outcomes depending on the social class/deprivation of the sufferers. It is known that the incidence of breast cancer in Scotland has increased but the mortality has dropped. It is also known that women from deprived areas present with more aggressive tumours. The good news is that the conclusion of Hayley’s research was that when one compares like breast cancers there is no difference in outcomes regardless of social status or deprivation in Scotland. Hayley was grateful for all the data available in Scotland that allowed her to do her research. She was of the opinion that the NHS was the cause of these good outcomes and that they would be different in the USA where the choice of treatment depended largely on the ability to pay.

Her presentation was followed by several pertinent questions which Hayley answered more than adequately. The VOT was given by Peter McGavigan and he and all the club members wished Hayley well for her time at medical school and a safe journey back to the USA.