16 Jul 20. DCN moves to BioQuarter

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Overview

A process which began in earnest in 2005, has finally come to fruition with the final phase of the DCN move from the WGH site to the Edinburgh BioQuarter, Little France.

Yesterday, the last remaining DCN WGH based services (inpatients & supporting services) established their new base on the south side of Edinburgh.

DCN outpatients had made the move in Apr 2020 & now both clinical services - inpatients & outpatients - will be integrated in the same new building.

This also reunites the DCN clinical department with its academic unit, which moved in 2015, to the Chancellor's Buildings at the Edinburgh BioQuarter, Little France.

The co-location on the same campus of the DCN department & its academic unit, should both enhance research opportunities & facilitate implementation of evidence based clinical practice.

DCN background

Norman Dott was the first professor of neurosurgery at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh in 1925, after two years training in Boston with Harvey Cushing.

In 1960 the new DCN was opened at the WGH site. Dott worked with neurologists, including Kate Hermann, one of the first female neurologists in the UK, while other neurologists worked at separate sites in the city.  

In 1987, the first professor of neurology in Edinburgh was Charles Warlow, pioneer in stroke & evidenced based neurology.

Dott & the Neurosurgeon Douglas Miller, centralised clinical neurosciences at the WGH site.

In the early 1990s, Robin Sellar established the intra-cerebral aneurysm coiling service, within the interventional neuroradiology unit.

Bob Will founded the CJD surveillance unit which detected the first cases of vCJD in 1996.

Joanna Wardlaw set up the Brain Research Imaging Centre (BRIC), Edinburgh in 1997.

The Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences (CCBS) led by Siddharthan Chandran, has maintained its strong reputation in stroke, while also broadening its interests to include regenerative neurology (multiple sclerosis (MS), motor neurone disease (MND), neuroinflammation), functional disorders & neuro-oncology.