Ben Furber
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benfurber.bsky.social
Ben Furber
@benfurber.bsky.social
68 followers 350 following 130 posts
Software engineer turned medical student in Derby.

New Brompton owner, but I’m not going to mention it again. From now. I promise.
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benfurber.bsky.social
Na. I show up on time to the things I'm asked to attend and don't talk over others - seems to do the trick.
Screenshot from BMA email. Says: "Dear Medical student, We all know that being professional is an essential part of studying and practicing medicine. However, students across the UK have told us that they feel professionalism standards can be weaponised against them. We’ve heard from many peers whose confidence is negatively impacted by the misuse of professionalism and fitness to practice standards by medical schools. Some students even feel unable to raise concerns for fear of reprisal."
October 9, 2025 at 2:58 PM
benfurber.bsky.social
Damn. I’m stuck too now!
A photo of a screen with a photo on it that contains a photo and a cute dog.
September 10, 2025 at 11:42 AM
benfurber.bsky.social
Austentatious was an excellent first thing to see at The Fringe.
August 9, 2025 at 2:47 PM
benfurber.bsky.social
Congrats to Newcastle Uni staff website for getting the top result when I googled this.
August 5, 2025 at 1:17 PM
benfurber.bsky.social
While it's in my bio here, I made my career change LinkedIn Offical today. Excited to start grad med next month.
Text: At 34, I start med school next month. Two years ago, I was a complete mess. Two years ago I was pretty lost in my life and career. A string of roles hadn’t gone well. What I was interested in working on and what companies wanted to pay me to work on weren’t aligned and (to put it mildly) key relationships just didn’t form. I took a few months out but ignored the depression I had, both due to the causes and effects of a failing career I no longer cared about. Then I finally faced the question about what I wanted to do with my life. While volunteering in my local A&E I got hooked on the knowledge, skill and dedication required to save lives, especially in that environment. The heart attack patient who couldn’t be saved. The stabbing victim, dumped at the hospital entrance, who was stabilised thanks to the work of dozens of healthcare professionals. Since then I’ve been doing everything needed to make this big change happen. I kept up the hospital volunteering, I learnt the basic science, maths and problem solving to pass the entrance exams, I drilled the answers I’d need to give at interviews and I completed an MSc in Global Health. All while still working and saving what I could. It’s obviously a big change and one that will, eeeerrrr, take me a while until I can get back into an A&E department with enough competence. I’m excited again about my personal future. Bring it on.
July 10, 2025 at 2:47 PM
benfurber.bsky.social
My dissertation on community-based interventions for migrant worker health screenings in high-income settings has been submitted and marked. Of my findings, this is the dissapointing one. None of the studies provided patient outcome data. So it's just not possible to ID effectiveness. #medsky
Included studies that evaluate screening interventions against which stages of the World Health Organisation’s screening programme model (n=24). 1 - Identify individuals - 19. 2 - Invite them for testing - 17. 3 - Complete the test - 21. 4 - Communicate the results - 15. 5 - Formal diagnosis - 13. 6 - Provide care to treat - 14. 7 - Report outcomes - 0.
July 4, 2025 at 9:40 AM
benfurber.bsky.social
Thanks for asking @researchgate.bsky.social, I guess it's nice you're thinking about me. But it's a quite a big question to ask me on a Friday...
Text: "Interested in research on Prostitution? Join ResearchGate to discover and stay up-to-date with the latest research from leading experts in Prostitution and many other scientific topics. Join for free."
June 20, 2025 at 12:00 PM
benfurber.bsky.social
This one paragraph in Lapadula (2022) basically sums up one of my key findings for my dissertation into screenings for migrant workers in HIC community settings. "Time and dedication" needed to link up care after testing. sti.bmj.com/content/99/1...
Text: "Among TGW-SW diagnosed with HIV, linkage to care was problematic, as previously reported,21 and needed time and dedication. Nonetheless, gaining trust and compliance to health appointments were not impossible. It should be noted that unconventional and dedicated strategies can be useful in engaging in care a population accustomed to a high rate of discrimination and mistrust. Communicating according to patient preference (eg, messaging app), chaperoning to low- threshold public health facilities, providing administrative help for health service registration and being reachable beyond usual office hours can increase TGW-SW healthcare access and reduce the time between diagnosis and linkage to care."
June 5, 2025 at 3:49 PM
benfurber.bsky.social
An oldie but a goodie: Increasing the Delivery of Health Care Services to Migrant Farm Worker Families Through a Community Partnership Model.

dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.15...
Text: The FWFHP participants begin to view migrant farm workers less as a vulnerable population and more as a resilient community, thus strengthening a commitment to social responsibility and serving at- risk populations. As with many marginalized popula- tions labeled as ‘‘vulnerable,’’ the resiliency of those who make up this population continually surfaces as one spends time with them. The distance between students, faculty, and the population served decreas- es, and a community partnership based on trust, reci- procity, and dignity develops. As students gain this perspective, they strengthen their abilities to lead in new ways in their professional nursing careers, community lives, and the wider arena of social re- sponsibility.
May 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
benfurber.bsky.social
If I were Wes, I'd happily abolish NHS England solely on the basis of this photo choice on the Health Education homepage. www.hee.nhs.uk
April 11, 2025 at 2:18 PM
benfurber.bsky.social
So many people want to listen to 1984 on Libby right now… I wonder why…
April 3, 2025 at 5:59 AM