The Life Scientific: Jonathan Shepherd

About this episode

<p>Surgeons often have to deal with the consequences of violent attacks - becoming all too familiar with patterns of public violence, and peaks around weekends, alcohol-infused events and occasions that bring together groups with conflicting ideals.</p><p>Professor Jonathan Shepherd not only recognised the link between public violence and emergency hospital admissions, he actually did something about it.</p><p>As a senior lecturer in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in the early 1980s, Jonathan started looking into this trend - and his research revealed that most violent assaults resulting in emergency hospital treatment are not reported to police.</p><p>As a result, he devised the ‘Cardiff Model for Violence Prevention’: a programme where hospitals share data about admissions relating to violent attacks with local authorities. He also went on to study various aspects of violent assault and deliver evidence-based solutions - from alcohol restrictions in hotspots, to less breakable beer glasses in pubs.</p><p>The impacts have been significant, delivering reductions in hospital admissions and in violent attacks recorded by police; not only in Cardiff, but in cities around the world where the model is used. Today, as an Emeritus Professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at Cardiff University - where he’s also Director of their Crime, Security and Intelligence Innovation Institute - Jonathan continues to bring together the medical sector with local authorities, finding practical ways to make cities and their residents safer.</p><p>But his career, straddling the worlds of practise, science and policy, is an unusual one; here he talks to Professor Jim Al-Khalili about what drove him to make a difference.</p><p>Presentedby Jim Al-Khalili Produced by Lucy Taylor Reversion for World Service by Minnie Harrop</p>