Dr Alice Beardmore-Gray is a Trainee in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and Clinical Lecturer at King’s College London.
The Florence and William Blair Bell Research Fellowship is designed to stimulate and support innovative research in obstetrics and gynaecology. Endowed in memory of Florence and William Blair Bell, the fellowship provides funding to early career postdoctoral researchers, enabling them to acquire additional clinical or research skills that ultimately enhance patient care and advance the specialty.
In this blog, Alice shares her experience of the fellowship, which she was awarded in 2024.
How did it feel to win the award, and what work did it support you to do?
I was extremely grateful to discover I had won this award, giving me the opportunity to travel to Tygerberg Academic Hospital in Cape Town, where I trained in point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) for critically ill patients in the Obstetric Critical Care Unit (OCCU). This progressed my work as principal investigator of the EMPOWERED study, assessing the feasibility and acceptability of using POCUS techniques to guide fluid management in women with severe pre-eclampsia in Zambia and Sierra Leone.
What did you learn during the fellowship, and what did you take away from the experience?
The fellowship was a great learning experience, where I gained valuable knowledge taking part in daily ward rounds and managing prevalent OCCU complications. I learned about the use of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) scoring systems such as Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) to predict mortality in critical obstetric patients, and the importance of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) and blood pressure control for pre-eclampsia related pulmonary oedema – techniques which have reduced maternal mortality for women admitted to the Tygerberg OCCU from 1 in 5 to 1 in 28 over the past 5 years.
The award gave me the chance to develop techniques for identifying pulmonary oedema and assessing the inferior vena cava using POCUS. I have since continued working towards my Intensive Care Society Focused Ultrasound in Intensive Care accreditation by attending outpatient transthoracic echo lists at my NHS trust. The experience also gave me the confidence and expertise to supervise a PhD student to develop and validate ICU scoring systems for use in an obstetric population.
What were the standout moments?
It was an exciting opportunity to observe high-risk cardiac clinics (including maternal trans thoracic echo studies), in addition to pregnancy counselling and management for women with a range of cardiac abnormalities such as cardiomyopathy and supra-ventricular tachycardia.
I was able to perform a total of eight complete scans for consenting women who were admitted with severe pre-eclampsia. I went on to present the EMPOWERED study at the Cape Town Pre-eclampsia Research Week 2026.
Following my time at Tygerberg, I was very proud to begin development of an obstetric focused POCUS training (heart and lungs) for obstetricians and midwives working on the EMPOWERED study in Zambia and Sierra Leone. Ultimately, the scholarship enabled me to finalise the protocol and receive ethical approval for the EMPOWERED study.
Looking ahead – what would you recommend about this award?
I would strongly encourage anyone embarking on a clinical research project to consider applying for the Fellowship. Beyond the clinical and technical skills you'll gain, it's a genuine opportunity to embed yourself in a different unit's ways of working, understand how others have solved problems you're grappling with in your own research, and build relationships that outlast the placement itself.
For me, the biggest value was the reciprocal learning it sparked - new academic collaborations and research questions I wouldn't have encountered otherwise. I'd encourage future applicants to go in open to that.
- The Florence and William Blair Bell Research Fellowship is available to RCOG Members or doctors in training in early career postdoctoral research who have completed their MD or PhD no more than twelve months prior to the date of their application. Learn more about the fellowship and how to apply: Florence and William Blair Bell Research Fellowship | RCOG
- Read more about the RCOG’s eLearning resource to support midwives and obstetricians who perform basic fetal presentation examinations using Point of Care ultrasound (POCUS) during pregnancy: Blog: Point of Care Ultrasound in O&G | RCOG